339 replies to this topic

[disgust]

yep, I use the DP tool too. I love it.

[johking]

Thanks very much. I went straight to try it and it looks just the thing, if I can get Google to create me an account which is not working at the mo. Try again later. Your help is much appreciated as always.

Jo

[johking]

There isn't anything that you can type in your web address, then your keywords and it says "You're 78th in Google, 23rd in Yahoo, etc", or is this too much to hope for?

Ta

Jo

[qwerty]

You can try Marketleap's Keyword Verification tool. It will show you what page you show up on (if you show up) in the results for ATW, AV, AOL, ODP, Google, HotBot, Lycos, MSN, NS, and Wisenut.

But keep in mind that search engines (G, specifically) aren't happy about people using automated systems to query their index. That's why Google set up the API, so they'd have some control over that -- there's a limit to the number of queries you can make per day via the API. So be nice, and don't make thousands of queries using this thing.

[Nathan Malone]

googlerankings.com is another one but they also don't support API so I wouldn't recommend them. It really isn't all that hard to use a program that supports API, Google gives away API keys for free so you shouldn't have any problem getting one.

[sherri]

Hi!

I have found a ton of useful tools here:

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/


Including a way to find your back links, and position on various SEs for given terms.

[Asia Bill]

Gee thanks guys & girls
Have been offline with technical problems for 4 days and was hoping for at least some indications of what software tools are the current favorits and why.
I don't even know what software names to search under these days.
Yes, thank you, I am aware that the software is only a support.
For the past 5 years my travel booking sites have maintained No1 or No 2 ranking on all the major search engines through hand crafting. I didn't need software as I havd a limited number of sites to track.
Now suddenly I am taking over sites that are in some cases not evn on the SE's and making new sites so some software support would be extrememly useful.

So, let me restate my plea: can I at least have names of the cuurent favorite software now in use?
PLEASE.
Thank you.

[stephenmunday]

I am not really an expert like most of the people here, so I looked around and chose IBP by Axandra. I have found that it is good at what it does, but it is better to think of it as a cluster of tools. As my confidence and knowledge has grown a little, I have become aware of more tools and advice forums out there (here, for one) that have proved to be at least as useful and are always free. (My budget's gone now, so non-free stuff is out of the question.) I guess what I am saying is look around sign up for some good forums and newsletters and you can find enough stuff yourself.

[MakeMeTop]

Unfotunately, most established SEO pros stopped using tools to do the mainstream work years ago - so most of us haven't a clue what the most popular software packages are. We don't use them!

However:

keyword research is done by using the Overture suggestion tool (free), AdWords tool (free) and Wordtracker (subscription service).

Site optimization tools - pass. So much off the page stuff is factored into all SE algos that I haven't used one for years. Once you've been doing this for a while, creating a good page is, well, instinctive!

SERP tracking - use your traffic logs. It is patently obvious what terms are appearing, not appearing or are shifting in the results. I haven't given clients a position report since 2001 - they are interested in converting traffic not positions!

Tracking - loads of things out there. Some basic, some pretty sophisticated - but you tend to get what you pay for. Hitslink is pretty popular and quite cheap.

[Jill]

Bill, here's the search for seo software on the forum to make it easier for you and so that we're not duplicating our posting efforts.

Jill

[therichbrooks]

How can I find out what my ranking is at certain search engines (Google & Yahoo most specifically) if I'm not on the first page?

I know that I can search w/in results, but I'm curious to know what my results would be if I had the patience to wade through pages and pages of results.

For example, I want to find out where a client ranks for "Maine Psychologist". Maybe he's on page 11, ranked 104. We make some changes and I'd like to know is he now on page 5 or page 15?

Thanks in advance.

[kology]

Another useful site for checking across multiple SE is

www.done-right.net/cgi-bin/demos/seranker/seranker.cgi?submit

I personally, never give them my real e-mail address, then again nor do any site for using a free tool.

[tamarah]

I am a webmaster in the process of solidifying my maintenance plan for different sites that I manage. I am considering purchasing Advanced Web Ranking that presents a read-out of the ranking of a specific url with specific keyword phrases in all the major search engines. It looks like a good tool.

I became concerned upon reading a reference Jill made to a 'WPG ranking report' in issue 101 of her newsletter. It seems that google frowns on sites that are evaluated in this manner? Where can I find out more about this?

Are these Web ranking read-outs of use to anyone? What are the pitfalls? What should I avoid? Should I run the software and just omit Google? Are there other search engines that I should omit from such a service? Is it worth the investment?

This is isn't a 'placement' tool. I am just trying to evaluate the site's rankings.

Thanks,
tamarah

[Lorelle]

Hi Tamarah,

Yes, Google does not want people to use automated software like WPG to check rankings. It's specifically mentioned in their Terms of Service.

The only way for Google to catch you at this AFAIK is to do it more than once from the same static IP address -- or be so clueless as to post the ranking reports right on your site, giving Google clear proof that its TOS were violated.

It's too bad Google doesn't provide a special area on its site just for webmasters to run multiple queries. I'd pay for subscription access to such an area! Yes, I know about the API key but not every webmaster is a techie so it isn't really available to all of us.

I think it's a shame that the only other way to check rankings is to pretend to be a regular searcher running the query. As an AdWords advertiser, I can't trust the number of impressions reported because I know they are somewhat inflated by webmasters checking rankings.

[scolling]

Hi Tamarah, and welcome

I also read that in Jill's newsletter, but I've also read some time ago either in other newsletters or in this forum that Jill uses WPG for Rank Checking (don't know if she still does - Jill?).

I use WPG but not from the same IP as any of the websites we host, and I'm not running it every day (maybe once a week or so) for one or two domains with 15 - 20 keywords.

On these volumnes I'm guessing that it'll get lost in the millions of searches they get every day.

S