Over the past few years I’ve worked with a number of different keyword tracking applications. I found that the best reports to send my clients are generated by Advanced Web Ranking. It generates nice PDFs of the keyword progress over time which is an easy to understand visual for my SEO clients. The application allows me to do a little analysis on the competition for our targeted keywords as well. Another thing that I like about the latest version of this application over others is that it allows me to schedule the tracking for all my clients so I can focus on the on-site SEO work and marketing. In addition to that, I can have the application email the reports directly to me and my clients after it finishes. The time saves of using this application over the others that I’ve tried has allowed me to really focus my attention more on improving the website ranking and analyzing the data rather than wasting so much time on simply gathering it. Advanced Web Ranking streamlines things and makes keyword rank tracking easier.

Lately, I’ve been doing more cross analysis of search engine rankings and PPC campaigns to minimize the money spent on search engine ads when we are already ranked #1. Its a waste to pay for clicks on keywords when you’re already ranked #1 for the keyword. One thing I’d like to see in future releases of this app is integration into Adwords and other PPC campaigns so I can easily see which keywords I’m paying for, in what search engine, and what their current rankings are. I’d like to be able to set a threshold ranking to turn on and off PPC ads when the search engine rankings cross a certain placement threshold. Its a time consuming process looking at all the keyword rankings and seeing which ones are in our PPC campaigns and at what CPC. That’s where I’m spending a lot of time these days with PPC management and I have yet to find a tool that does that. It would be nice if Advanced Web Ranking would include that in future releases so I can have just 1 tool that can handle all my SEO & SEM needs.

Besides the missing feature, I still use Advanced Web Rankings search engine ranking software daily to track the keyword rankings of my clients so I can give them quantitative evidence that my SEO techniques work and work well. The maintenance plan that comes with a subscription plan that keeps the search engine parses current in case the search engines change their outputs. Without the maintenance plan, when a search engine changes their search engine output it sometimes breaks the rank checking for that search engine. The maintenance plan keeps them current so you can be sure that the rankings will work for all the search engines you select. I typically use the big 3: Google, Yahoo, and MSN. MSN is basically just Bing now though. If you’re interested in more than those 3, Advanced Web Ranking includes a huge list of other search engines from around the world to choose from.

Its been a long year and I’ve had very little time to keep things updated around this site but here’s a preview of something we’ve been working on with a client. Its a self updating address book so you never lose track of your contacts when their information changes. Signup, try it out, and let us know if you have any ideas for improving it.