Google Chrome is one of the most popular internet browsers in the world thanks to its many functions, sleek interface, and of course its connection to the mighty search engine and their software and hardware. But many of Chrome’s best functions are trapped behind layers of steps complex enough to give Indiana Jones pause. Many browser extensions save web designers and other professionals time by creating shortcuts to functions such as screenshots and element/source code viewing. Others introduce completely unique functionality, turning the browser into something more than just an interface for browsing the web. Chrome extensions are particularly useful for website designers because we spend many hours working with internet browsers, and regularly test websites on all browsers (or at least the popular ones). When you spend eight or more hours a day working online, there are many mundane tasks which are unnecessarily time consuming. Extensions can make a five minute task take thirty seconds, or prevent the need for using extra software. While there are many great extensions (also called plugins) for Chrome that can help designers with their daily work, here are six I find particularly useful.

ColorZilla

ColorZilla is probably the extension that saves me the most time, whether I’m working on web design or some other project that involves color. ColorZilla can grab the hex code from any visible element on the page, copying it to the clipboard with a single click. Without this extension, getting a hex code from an unknown color requires downloading or screenshotting the page, and then loading the image into a software which can extract the code. That would be enough to make ColorZilla my personal favourite extension on this list, but the little monster introduces even more functionality to the browser. It also has a color picking palette and gradient generator built into it, and can analyze all the colors used on a page and provide them in an accessible format. In other words, if you have trouble finding the right color combinations for your site or spend lots of time downloading images to get their hex codes, ColorZilla may be your new best friend.

FireShot

Fireshot is a magnificent extension for anyone who creates tutorials, reports, or design notes on pictures of their website. Rather than going through Chrome’s agonizing procedure for taking an ordinary screenshot, FireShot allows you to capture a selected area of the page, or the whole page, or just the currently visible area. This is an incredibly handy tool for creating mockups of websites, or for getting an image that you can draw/write some notes on and pass to a coworker or employee. With just a couple of clicks you can capture whatever you want a picture of and then copy it to the clipboard or save it as a PNG, JPG or PDF. The premium version of this extension introduces even more functionality, but everything listed above is available for free. If you regularly browse on Chrome for any kind of work, having FireShot or a comparable extension installed makes perfect sense.

Fonts Ninja

Fonts Ninja is a cool tool that is great for designers who draw inspiration from other websites. If you see a font you like, normally you’d have to inspect the element and/or check the source code to find out what it is, which can be a tedious and time consuming process. With Fonts Ninja, it takes only a couple of clicks to discover, experiment with, and download any font you find appealing. If you’re not especially comfortable searching through source code or you spend a lot of time thinking about fonts, this is definitely an extension for you. One of Fonts Ninja’s greatest features is the fact that it’s completely free; there aren’t any functions hidden behind a paywall, which is a frustrating truth of many extensions. If the font you’re admiring isn’t free, Fonts Ninja provides a link to purchase it. It even provides a slick interface within the browser which you can use to experiment with fonts before deciding whether or not to get them. Overall, if you want to up your font game this extension will make your life much easier.

CSS Scan

CSS Scan is a powerful paid extension which describes itself as “inspect element on steroids”. Between that and the name you can probably guess what it does, but here’s a quick rundown of its best features, anyway. When CSS scan is activated, hovering your mouse over any element on the active web page will display its Cascading Style Sheet data, and allow the code to be copied to the clipboard with a single click. This makes learning from code used on other websites much easier, and you may find other uses for this extension depending on your responsibilities.

Checkbot

Checkbot has many functions built into it, but from a bird’s eye view it’s easy to understand; this extension will test a website against long lists of SEO, Speed, and Security best practices. It looks for broken links, unoptimized code, easy access to restricted areas, and much more. This extension will be useful whether you’re new to web design and working only on your own website, or if you’re an experienced designer with many client projects to manage. While the free version of this extension has some built-in limitations, the premium version can check up to 10,000 URLS per website and export PDF and CSV reports. If you’re new to working with websites, this tool will help you find problems that may otherwise elude you, and help you embrace best practices. If you’re more experienced, it could help you scale your business by reducing the time required to find and fix problems. For a full list of Checkbot functions, check the Chrome webstore page linked above or take a look at their website. Even if you just test out of the free version, you may find some easy-to-fix problems with a site you’re working on.

Block Yourself from Analytics

Block Analytics is a handy extension that stops Google Analytics, a popular site statistics tool, from including your own visits and navigation trends from the statistics of websites you’re working on. The is can be useful if you want to ensure that your website stats are those of your actual visitors, and not your own. While there are other ways to accomplish the same thing (such as creating an IP filter in Google Analytics), there are many situations where a extension like Block Analytics is an easier solution. If your IP address changes regularly, or if you work from a variety of locations, or if you don’t have access to Analytics for all the sites you’re working on, Block Analytics can be exactly what you need. It should be noted that this extension is not intended to mask your presence on all websites - the creator expressly says so in its description.

Closing Notes on Browser Extensions

Chrome is a powerful web browser, but some of its best functions are hidden behind a series of annoying steps or require deeper knowledge of web development. If you spend a lot of time working online and feel like too much of it is focused on repetitive, mundane tasks, you may want to look into adding a few browser extensions. Between the half dozen or so extensions I use on a daily or weekly basis, I estimate they save me at least five or six hours a month. That’s enough time to knock out a small project, or spend a half day relaxing. But time isn’t the only benefit of these extensions; they also save a lot of frustration that can result from the more mundane aspects of web design work. The more you keep your mind clear, the more you can stay creative and design beautiful websites. Do you use other useful Chrome extensions on a daily basis? Let me and other readers know in the comments below!

As part of Web Hosting Canada's Agency Spotlight feature, we recently spoke to Maxime Jobin, the co-founder of SatelliteWP, a Montreal web agency specializing in WordPress maintenance services. An expert in automation and web performance, Mr. Jobin also gives lectures to share his knowledge and experiences. We were excited to hear his input on what it takes to create and grow a successful WordPress development agency.

How did SatelliteWP start?

In early 2017, I had my own company and my partner Jean-Francois had his own. A project came up that provided us with the opportunity to work together. Following a meeting regarding this project, we went out for lunch and started talking about the maintenance of WordPress sites. Jean-Francois was already offering this to his clients, but it was nothing more than basic service. Our discussion then turned to neglected websites that were receiving little or no maintenance. That is when we started discussing the possibility of launching a service dedicated solely to maintenance. Our goal: to minimize a company’s business risks by taking care of the technical aspects. We finished our meal saying, “let’s think about it … and we’ll talk again.” Less than 24 hours later, I was calling Jean-François back to tell him: “This is too great an opportunity to pass up. I am setting out on this venture, with or without you. Are you in?” He accepted without any hesitation. Since we were still running our own businesses, we had to set up a meeting to assess the feasibility of the project. About three hours later, we had our game plan! By that time it was the end of February 2017. On April 20, 2017, our first client purchased a maintenance plan on our new website! We now offer several maintenance plans that provide backups, updates, security scans, monitoring, etc. Whether it is for a relatively static showcase site or an e-commerce site, SatelliteWP provides companies with a team of WordPress experts.

How would you describe a typical work day at SatelliteWP?

On a typical day for us, what we had planned on doing is completely different than what we end up doing! While doing maintenance, we are constantly being contacted by clients who urgently need their problems to be solved! It’s the nature of our work. The problems can be client errors that need to be fixed immediately, configuration issues, hosting providers that are no longer available, hacked websites, non-renewed domain names, payment gateways that no longer work, emails that can’t be sent or received, etc. Unfortunately, most of the problems that we experience are due to a lack of preventative maintenance. This often increases our risks while we are trying to restore the situation. Therefore, we give every new client a "health check" to assess risks and to plan for risk reduction. This gives our clients peace of mind and reduces long term-costs. Contingency management is needed on a daily basis...and this is in addition to the improvement projects that our clients entrust to us. It’s a balancing act, but it keeps us on our toes!

What type of clients do you mainly cater to? Has this changed over time?

Initially we thought that our client base was any company with a WordPress site. Later, we realized that our ideal clients are those that see their website as an investment. In other words, their websites must generate a return on investment. For example, it could be a site that gathers sales leads, an online store, a knowledge base to reduce the number of calls, additional information for the sales team, a members' section, etc. Our clients consider their website to be a full member of their work team. In this light, it only makes sense to have a reasonable budget for keeping it healthy!

What is the most difficult part of your job?

A specific feature of our work is that we manage websites that we did not make. Each site is different and configured in its own way. So, solving problems requires an extensive knowledge of the WordPress universe. Our team must constantly be on the lookout for updates to different themes and extensions (in addition to WordPress core updates), as well as be able to identify potential incompatibilities that are specific to each site’s configuration. It is not a science, but it is painstaking work.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

The trust of our clients. When we manage the maintenance of a site, we have access to sensitive client data. The fact that they trust us with this data is a golden mark of trust. Confidential data is at the heart of the companies we support. It is not uncommon for our clients to forward us e-mails that they receive to request our expert advice on issues that concern them. Sometimes we are even consulted on issues on which we have no expertise! Is this not the pinnacle of trust? (Obviously, we refer them to the appropriate experts!) We are a partner in their success... not a "service provider."

What marketing initiatives have been the most successful for you to grow your business?

We are offering a "health check" for sites using WordPress. This website analysis is provided free with no obligation, and is carried out by one of our experts to sensitize companies to the risks associated with not maintaining their site. All this serves to inform clients about the various issues and the possible solutions available to them. If you are reading this and would like to get a website analysis, contact us directly and mention "WHC Interview," and I will add a bonus! Since one of our challenges is to educate, we have increased our presence on social media, where we have deployed humorous campaigns explaining various terms such as backups, web hosting, security, etc. I invite you to follow us!

Why have you chosen WordPress as your primary development platform?

My relationship with WordPress goes back more than 10 years. I had chosen this platform because of its community, documentation, reliability and customizability. The fact that it was free and open source was also a factor in my decision. What’s the most important question one should ask before choosing a web agency to help them with their website? Before asking any questions, you must feel that you are being guided throughout the process. If you are the one doing the guiding... that is a red flag! Ultimately, you want to establish a relationship with professionals who will guide you... not those who will just do everything you say. After all, you're not the web pro, are you?

What do you tell business owners that are hesitant to work with web agencies due to the costs?

If you think hiring a professional is expensive, just wait and see how much an amateur will cost you. You should know that a project that costs you $1,000 will almost always give a different result than a project that costs you $10,000. An $8 steak bought at the supermarket is not the same as a $35 steak prepared by a chef.

Why should small businesses use WordPress for their new websites rather than other commercial site builders?

First of all, the main advantage with WordPress is that it has an open platform. This means that you have access to the source code and can make any modifications that you wish. However, this must be paid for before the site is delivered. If you use a commercial tool, however, you are limited to the features developed by that builder. Also, if your ideas are not in line with their game plan, you will have to change platforms. And doing so is complicated because access to data could be difficult. On the positive side, you pay them a monthly fee and your site is available in a few hours. So, there is no perfect solution!

What is the most common mistake you see small businesses make with their websites?

Thinking that making your own website is a good idea! You see, I have a hammer, a drill and a saw at home, but I understood a long time ago that what I could do with them was very limited, especially if I wanted a high quality product. Having the tools does not mean that you can use them properly!

What new WordPress plugin have you discovered or used recently that could be useful to Canadian small businesses?

I am part of the WordPress translation team for "Canadian French". Most translations come from France, which may make it more tempting to select "French (France)" rather than "French (Canada)" when installing WordPress. The "Preferred Languages" extension gives the option of selecting "French (Canada)" as the main language, and “French (France)” when Canadian French is not available In short, it is the best of both worlds for those who want Canadian French... when possible!

What do you look for in a hosting provider for your clients’ WordPress sites?

Do not consider just the price. If you have set aggressive objectives for your website, make sure you select a hosting package that matches your ambitions. The competence of the provider’s technical team and a solid, up-to-date infrastructure are also significant criteria. In addition, I try to assess the company's transparency when breakdowns occur. And yes, these will happen. But how does the company handle these situations? Your choice of a partner should not be based on how they perform when everything is going well, but on how they handle problems effectively when things go wrong.

What do you recommend to WordPress enthusiasts that wish to expand their knowledge and understanding of WordPress?

Get involved in the community! You don't have to be a developer. You can contribute by doing marketing, writing, translating or answering questions. It is a diverse community with opportunities for anyone interested. Contact me and I can guide you accordingly.

What does the future hold for SatelliteWP?

We have too often received the comment, “Had I known earlier that a service like yours existed....” Our service is relatively new and we are working towards increasing our visibility because many companies need our services, but do not know that we exist. We must therefore make it easier for them to find us so that we can support them in their efforts. Our team, which will certainly grow over the next few months, is very involved in sensitizing companies and web agencies to the need of regularly maintaining their websites. Our primary goal is to equip them with the knowledge to understand the issues and risks. This will ensure that they have the necessary resources to make an informed decision regarding their web-based risk management. Our ambition is to become the reference when it comes to WordPress, and the most reliable partner for businesses, bloggers and influencers who use the platform. In a few years, we want “SatelliteWP” to be synonymous with “Your WordPress Experts”! A very big thank you to Maxime Jobin and his team for sharing their story. It’s great to meet an agency that values community engagement and is committed to open-source software. We invite you to check out satellitewp.com for more information about their team and services.