15 replies to this topic

[azs]

A friend of mine introduced me to Web Position Gold. I know this is only one of many SEO software out there. Does anyone know how good WGP ranks with the others? Based on the research I did is seems fairly comprehensive with the potential to save a lot of time. Any thoughts? They're much appreciated

azs

[Jill]

It's great for checking rankings, if you care about that.

I wouldn't use it to generate doorway pages, however.

No SEO software can take the place of a human. And in fact, SEO software can't write copy, so really what can it actually do, since copy is the key!

Jill

[Searchaware]

Hey azs

As Jill says it is good for checking rankings but thats about it IMHO. Of course it is worth the purchase price alone to get the ranking reports.

A few points to consider:

1. The search engines don't really like WPG all that much as it takes up bandwidth. Try not to use it more than necessary and take advantage of features which slow the speed with which it performs searches.
2. Getting the text export of results from WPG and importing them into another system can enable you to get some useful historical trends.
3. Ranking reports are useful but only as a means to give you an idea of how things are going - tracking of sales leads and actual sales is a far more accurate way of measuring your success.

Hope this helps

Simon

[Mel]

A couple of points about the newer versions of WPG. They are not so hard on the search engines bandwidth as they used to be, for instance if you put say 6 terms into a search and query 6 engines with a delay of only ten seconds set into the system it will be a minumum of 60 seconds between successive queries on any one engine.

WPG is also not a bad way to get a competition analysis of the top x number of pages ranking for a certain search term.

While I agree that rankings alone are not a guarantee of significant traffic, I have never seen a site that did not rank well get much traffic from a search engine.

[compar]

There is no single software package that can do SEO. There are a number of packages that will help with different aspects of the over all chore. WPG is one, but so is Wordtracker and a variety of other packages.

If you looking for a total solution -- push the button and it all done -- package forget it. It is a head game. But If you are looking for specific help tell us what that is and we maybe able to recommend something.

[dimok]

I use most tools written by programmers of our company: position checking in all important SEs, server-side stats, keywords analysis and others.

I think it's the best way for big companies. But for small business it's more effective to simply by software.

[compar]

I think it's the best way for big companies. But for small business it's more effective to simply by software.

So what programs do you recommend in particular?

Edited by compar, 27 August 2003 - 09:00 AM.

[TheGreatDane]

Hi azs,
I have tried Web Position Gold and it gave me at least one advice, that have been proven to be wrong (I didn't implement it, but are doing very different from what was advised).

On linkpopularity.com there is a listing of "Specific tools to help boost traffic to your web site". Here is Web Position Gold mentioned, but there is a note saying:
Note: not recommended for Google..

If that is correct, that would be reason enough to avoid it (for others than checking for rankings). I know google is not the only search engine, but IMO it's an important one. And if WPG isn't recommendable for google, I would guess, this would be valid for other engines as well.

[K.S. Katz]

If you're looking for some other SEO related software to help you with your web site, try the following:

Web Statistics - http://awstats.sourceforge.net/ (It's an open source PERL script that's free to download) or http://www.clicktracks.com/ (This program is great but prices start at $495+)

Wordtracker - http://www.wordtracker.com/ (It costs money to get access but there's several options: Free Trial [which is limited] or pay for 1 day access [$6.61])

HTML validator - Some HTML editors like HTML Kit (http://www.chami.com/html-kit/) offer a built-in validator to make sure that your code is up to the W3C standard. (if you don't know what that is check out http://www.w3.org/)

FYI - I don't use any other software when I do SEO work. I use my copywriting, marketing and programming skills to get the desired effects.

IMO SEO is a combination of artistic and technical know-how. Software can't replace human inventiveness.

[TheGreatDane]

Web Statistics - http://awstats.sourceforge.net/ (It's an open source PERL script that's free to download)

I agree with you K.S. Katz - awstats is an absolute superb tool for statistics. And it has some great possibilities for customizing, which I find very useful (especially because I'm one of the "naughty boys" using frames )

[brianjulkunen]

check out IBP, great seo analysis

[AgentWebRanking]

- I do agree with Jill, no SEO software can take the place of a human. Read this forum instead

- About Google ranking report. If you are a software developer you can use Google Web Api ( http://api.google.com/createkey ), if not you can use ranking software based on Google Web Api ( software like http://www.searchenginelab.com/ or http://www.agentwebranking.com)

- For our sites statistics we do not use a software but an online solution (http://www.hitbox.com). It has great features

Fabien

[Peter]

I don't really see how a software can do SEO. It´s like asking a software to write your companies financial report. You can use software to get some statistics, that's all. But then SEO generally is not cheap (even though you may get lucky and find very nice prices,.. ) , but worth the investment.

Regards,

Peter

[fred]

Well it looks like everybody has an opinion and in this case everybody has the same.

I use webposition but for reporting only, leaving long intervals between queries.

I also have received bad advice from web position gold.

So for reporting uses , I would recommend carefull use of it. For everything else I would recommand not using it.

For seo I recommand pure brain juice, writing effective copy, no spamming ( not even trying ).

Fred
Coming Soon - Nousolutions

[suthra]

Then how does everyone do the rank check. Its clear from your views that using software to do a rank check on google is a bad thing to do. Now what about other search engines. Doing a rank check on other search engines using softwares is OK? or should i do manually or does anyone know of some tools that does these legally?


Please clarify
Regds.,
sarathy.s