Dearest clients, friends, pals– past and present:

I know I’m just a lowly intern, but I’m a really formidable beggar, so here goes.

Want to help DriveTraffic grow? All you have to do is submit a customer satisfaction review to an online SEO company review database.

There are tons of companies listed in there, but when I scrolled down to find “DriveTraffic,” I was sad to see she was missing. And I know from working here that DT can swim with the big boys.

It’s really quick and easy– takes two minutes. Merci beaucoup.

So many people rely on search engine rankings as an indicator of how they are doing and for a while I have been trying to get people to look at their web analytics as a guide rather than using ranking software. My reason in the past has been that rankings change throughout the day and definitely vary depending on where a person lives - how often do you see UK results in the search engine rather than US or Canadian? Google offers personalized results - at the very least based on the address of your ip address.

Yesterday I received proof of why top rankings are not the be all end all. DriveTraffic does not have top rankings for a particular brand of web analytics software (to protect the innocent I am going to keep this post relatively vague) - there are at least two other companies based in the same province that have higher organic rankings and also pay for Sponsored Listings on all of the search engines.

When I received a cold call from a potential client inquiring about service related to this web analytics software, I was wondering why they were calling me when these other sites are always more visible than mine. I figure it had to be that the look and feel of my site appealed to this individual more so than the look and feel of at least one of the other competitors. Turns out I was right! One of the competitors sites was a little busy looking for this particular individual and they chose not to dig around too far in the site to find the information they required.

So…. it is ok not to be #1 in the search engines, especially if you have more content that can help a prospective client make a decision about using your services, if your site conveys a credible image, and is layed out in such a way that the client can easily navigate the site, find your contact information and make an informed decision!

One last part to all of this - your sales technique. Do you answer your phone? Do you return client phone calls promptly? Are you aggressive in trying to close a sale? These things all add up.

If you would like a non-biased view of the credibility of your website, consider hiring DriveTraffic to conduct a focus test on your behalf. You may also want to consider reading some credibility resources.

So many people rely on search engine rankings as an indicator of how they are doing and for a while I have been trying to get people to look at their web analytics as a guide rather than using ranking software. My reason in the past has been that rankings change throughout the day and definitely vary depending on where a person lives - how often do you see UK results in the search engine rather than US or Canadian? Google offers personalized results - at the very least based on the address of your ip address.

Yesterday I received proof of why top rankings are not the be all end all. DriveTraffic does not have top rankings for a particular brand of web analytics software (to protect the innocent I am going to keep this post relatively vague) - there are at least two other companies based in the same province that have higher organic rankings and also pay for Sponsored Listings on all of the search engines.

When I received a cold call from a potential client inquiring about service related to this web analytics software, I was wondering why they were calling me when these other sites are always more visible than mine. I figure it had to be that the look and feel of my site appealed to this individual more so than the look and feel of at least one of the other competitors. Turns out I was right! One of the competitors sites was a little busy looking for this particular individual and they chose not to dig around too far in the site to find the information they required.

So…. it is ok not to be #1 in the search engines, especially if you have more content that can help a prospective client make a decision about using your services, if your site conveys a credible image, and is layed out in such a way that the client can easily navigate the site, find your contact information and make an informed decision!

One last part to all of this - your sales technique. Do you answer your phone? Do you return client phone calls promptly? Are you aggressive in trying to close a sale? These things all add up.

If you would like a non-biased view of the credibility of your website, consider hiring DriveTraffic to conduct a focus test on your behalf. You may also want to consider reading some credibility resources.

I forget how I stumbled across this product years ago - I think it went by another name but was forced to change name because there was another product with the same name…I am thinking it had something to do with Hot Dog but I could be very, very wrong *grin*

SEC was good in it’s day, but I am afraid that day has passed. I used it for ranking but it also does submission of your site to the search engines - and you can even schedule submissions on a repetitive basis! Yikes! This is so passé, to submit repeatedly to search engines… I never used this aspect of the software.

When I upgraded my license a few months ago, SEC said that they would be utilitzing the Google API key in the near future. As of today there is nothing on the site about this, nor is it addressed in the FAQ.

What I find is that I can rarely get a ranking for Yahoo! and Google has now stopped working as well….since I was checking rankings in 3 search engines, when 2 stop working, the product is not much good to me ;-)

I strongly recommend that you do not waste your money on this product, as good as it was in the past, it has not kept up with the current search engine terms and conditions.

This is the first of a series of articles on various search engine ranking software products that are on the market.

It would only be fair to disclose the following information: Google Information for Webmasters and Terms of Service indicate that No Automated Querying is allowed:

No Automated Querying

You may not send automated queries of any sort to Google’s system without express permission in advance from Google. Note that “sending automated queries” includes, among other things:

• using any software which sends queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage “ranks” on Google for various queries;

Express permission, I am assuming, means that the developer of the software requires any user of the software to provide a Google API, in order to use the software. If the sofware does not require you to use a Google API, they are not “legally” interacting with Google to provide you with a search engine ranking.

What this means to me is that I would not pay for that sofware as it will not work for long if it currently works at all!

Some software that I will review includes:

1. Search Engine Commando
2. Advanced Web Ranking
3. Web CEO
4. Free Monitor for Google
5. Digital Point Solutions

If you have used other software and wish to contribute, please feel free to comment! If you are reviewing a software product, provide the URL, whether or not it uses an API for the different search engines, if there is a trial version, etc.