01225 571 707

The View As Text extension for Google Chrome is a useful tool for any web developer or SEO consultant. It will work with any version of Chrome that supports extensions.

Using the HTML2Txt service found at http://cgi.w3.org/cgi-bin/html2txt it's possible to view a web page as text only. This is about as close as you can get to 'Google goggles' and it's essential that you understand how the search engines will see your site.

A good web page (Click2Scan who are one of my clients) will have plenty of content visible in text only, a poor web page (I'm picking on Tissot) may look fantastic but have little in the way of content. For brand-led sites like Tissot this doesn't matter so much.

If you are a website owner wondering why you are not getting the search engine ranking you hope for then make sure that Google is able to see more than the dreaded "This website uses frames, please upgrade your browser" message I have seen so often in the past.

I wrote this extension today as I mourn the loss of the Yellowpipe Lynx Viewer Tool which has been an essential part of my Firefox add-on library for a couple of years. Sadly it doesn't support the latest update of Firefox.

Many thanks to Silvestre Herrera for the fantastic icon I have used in this article / extension.