Ok guys and gals I think my reason for posting is fairly obvious but before we get going I just want to expand on what I am looking for a little. I'm not a total newb looking to a magic piece of software to give me a P1 google rank for all my terms!! Also I am not an individual affiliate marketer/webmaster with a limited budget to spend (well I am, but not in this case ). What I am is an Online Marketer working for a company which, until now, largely uses PPC as its major focus for aquisition. I am keen to improve our organic performance and have recently been focusing on building relationships with local government sites here in the UK (for both the link and real world benefits these relationships bring). Whilst I am pretty experienced with SEO I have never before had the desire to use any bought tools as I always got on fine working manually and using the free tools that are out there. Now though I do need to at least consider tools which can cut down the manual work load (even just for analysis and investigation) hence my question here. So...the question is what tools do people recommend, the ones I'm already looking at (although would still love to hear an opinion on) are: Hitwise (for competitor analysis and information) WebCEO IBP & Arelis SEO Elite [JOKE] Web Position Gold [/JOKE] Any opinions on these, or suggestions of other would be greatly appreciated.
I own SEO Elite and it seems I only use it to track other sites, not really my own. I hardly ever use it anymore as the more I read the more I find those same free tools you mentioned. But as you stated, you're in a position where you can spend a little more. I don't have much experience with the others, but I did run those apps through this DP search tool and found many informative threads. Depending on how lush your budget is maybe you could have some software made? Given your knowledge of SEO, you could help come up with the exact functions your company wants. Yes a little more expensive, but better in the long run. Good luck.
Except HitWise I have used all the software you named. My sympathy is with WebCEO. WebCEO is not a magic button to make you â„–1 in Google, but it is a great thing to get rid of monotonous routine. One more thing I like about WebCEO is that they are open to dialogue. I mean the developers listen to the clients propositions and are ready to implement new features.
My opinion: Hitwise - haven't tried. $695 for just ONE report is a way too much, I'm afraid. WebSEO - nice tool, but in my opinion they're trying to offer too much functionality in one product, so it might be hard to start working with it, plus many of the tools offered are really useless, or lack necessary functionality (I mean, seems like they want to impess people with the number of features - not the quality, so they in every new version offer more and more useless *toys*.) IBP & Arelis - like with WebCEO, three or four different specialized product would make all the work better, faster, and would be not so expensive. SEO Elite - crap. period. From the tools not mentioned here, I can add software offered at www.link-assistant.com: SEO SpyGlass (competition analysis), Rank Tracker (rank checking, plus they promise keyword research in the nearest version) and, maybe, LinkAssistant, if you're interested in link exchange. I've been contacting these guys many times, they helped me a lot, so I even became their affililate Anyway, I think you should try all of them yourself, and make your own decision, right?
I like WebCEO and IBP the best, however i usually do most things manually and use a few free online tools. Because i started SEOing before all these tools came along, it's habit and quicker to tap in an operator/query in to Google for most day to day things. Although the customized reports in IBP are great to hand to a client to document the work and improvements at the beginning and end of a job. SEO Elite, i hate it very much.
Thanks seoBear, LinkAssistant is one that I have come across but haven't heard a lot about before so I'll be sure to add it to the list to check out (using your aff link seen as you were kind enough to provide a non-aff link too ) Anyone else got any other suggestions?
I have tired quite a few of these software tools and found that ibp 9 is the best. great value for money as well.
I used WebCEO on my personal weblog and got me from pagerank 2 to a pagerank 4 in short time but it's taking longer with another weblog i own that ironically has richer content