Essential SEM Tools.

[Terry Plank]

I wanted to start this thread to discuss SEM tools members believe are essential to their SEM.

[Jeff Martin]

I believe, without a doubt, you would have to include WorkTracker as a definant. I would group newsletters and forums into a tools category as well. After all they are the means that the bulk of our knowledge is shared in our industry. I myself subscribe to over 10 newsletters and half a dozen forums.

[rustybrick]

Agreed, forums, news sites like SEW, blogs are all valuable tools. Also tools that track keyword success, spider activity for new sites and keyword tools. However, Web analytics tools like Urchin, WebTrends and ClickTracks are probably the most important SEM tools one can have.

But my most valuable tools are not specific to SEM, its specific to how I manage my clients.

To have a successful SEM company (or any company) you need to manage your customers, time and resources carefully.

[Terry Plank]

To have a successful SEM company (or any company) you need to manage your customers, time and resources carefully.

Got me curious, what are some of them.

[rustybrick]

Got me curious, what are some of them.

Well I don't use any 3rd party applications to run my business except for QuickBooks.

Everything we do from prospect management, project management, employee management, timing and most of billing is all managed through custom built Web based applications. The cool part is that its fully integrated with QuickBooks through its API. But the most important thing is that it keeps us organized and keeps the customer over satisfied at all times.

[AussieWebmaster]

Well I don't use any 3rd party applications to run my business except for QuickBooks.

Everything we do from prospect management, project management, employee management, timing and most of billing is all managed through custom built Web based applications. The cool part is that its fully integrated with QuickBooks through its API. But the most important thing is that it keeps us organized and keeps the customer over satisfied at all times.

Interesting approach... I use a lot of out of the box, hosted solutions like WebSideStory, KeywordMax and NetTracker for ROI... Eloqua for email tracking, DigitalPoint for tracking Google organic search positions... KeywordPositionGold for terms searching...
with these tools we can turn CPM into PPC and CPA models, so that we have a good view of other net marketing methods that also help organic results...

Am now researching link ROI and devloping measurements for influence on free results as well as straight conversion.

[AdamH]

I'm a big fan of Web CEO for managing all my client's ranking reports and doing search phrase research.

I also like ClickTracks for showing clients the ROI genrated from search results and PPC campaigns I'm managing. As well as providing some in depth tools for traffic analytics and making recommendations on site usability.

Has anyone used any other conversion tracking tools? or have any recommendations?

Adam Harrell
NeboWeb eMarketing

[Anthony Parsons]

IMO, all these tools are for the most part, rubbish. Most off the online tools don't work accurately and give different results when moving between them on different sites, and a waste of time and resources.

If I had 20 different programs to get my job done, well, I would spend more time in them, than actually getting the work done for my clients.

IMO, less is better when it comes to online businesses.

Organisation: Outlook (or equivalent)
Design Program: HTML Editor
Graphics Program: Photoshop (or equivalent)
Accounting: MYOB (or equivalent)
Site Marketing Analysis: Click Tracks (or equivalent)
Basic site checking tool: IBP (or equivalent)

Online: Word Tracker, Forums, News

It is really each to their own, but hey, IMO why stuff about with 60 mediocre, half useless programs, when you can do it all with 6 quality applications. I get quality results, accurate findings and damn good rankings for clients with those above, nothing more.

What confuses the hell out of me, is you will get people stuff around in Google adwords free keyword tool, Overtures tool, etc, trying to find their relevant keywords with no data to back them up, instead of spending the mere few dollars for 24hrs access to do it right in word tracker with all the statistical data, then confirm within the engines.

The long list goes on, but I am really against most online free tools and rubbish programs. They waste more time than anything. Time is money too me in my business.

[TheFesta]

Got me curious, what are some of them.

One of my favorite tools to track customers, vendors, etc is good old ACT!. It's been around for years and is easily customized to any CRM need. It's also reasonably priced.

[seobook]

link analysis software = awesome

http://www.linktree.info = free + awesome topical authority finder

optilink ($224) and link proctor ($67) are decent too, but they cost

[ShootinBlanks]

I've been around for a while, and have used lots of different software, but nobody has used ALL of them. I know about ROI, WPG, PPC, PFI, MSN, and a bunch of other acronyms, but what are ACT, IBP, CPA, and CRM? Is there a page where all of these acronyms are defined, or is there a need for some sort of rule about using acronyms? Sorry if I seem really dumb, a little low on my BLC quotient.(Blood Level Caffeine) ;o)

[AussieWebmaster]

link analysis software = awesome

http://www.linktree.info = free + awesome topical authority finder

optilink ($224) and link proctor ($67) are decent too, but they cost

Thanks will check them out.

[AussieWebmaster]

Yes they get confusing... and we should do a sticky somewhere or have Danny add a list over at SEW with a permanent link here...

But here are the ones you wanted:
ACT is a contact program - brand name.... been around for ages... tracks customer info with note adding etc. as aprt of it.

IBP is another program of Business Tools

CPA is Cost Per Acquisition... the cost to convert a sale

CRM is Customer Relationship Management or Customer Record Management... all the same thing...

[Terry Plank]

...what are ACT, IBP, CPA, and CRM? Is there a page where all of these acronyms are defined, or is there a need for some sort of rule about using acronyms?

Here are some places to get definitions.

http://www.marketingterms.com/
http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/article.php/2156001
http://www.searchenginedictionary.com/
http://www.sempo.org/glossary.php
http://www.webmasterworld.com/glossary/

Acronyms help in that they are good shorthand, but might be a good idea to give the whole phrase early in a post and then get to the shorthand.

[ShootinBlanks]

Thanks, it's nice to know someone is listening...

[Terry Plank]

http://www.linktree.info
optilink ($224) and link proctor ($67) are decent too, but they cost

I like OptiLink, especially how robust it is as an analysis tool.

Anyone tried Zeus (http://www.cyber-robotics.com) [http://www.cyber-robotics.com] ? I've seen it misused and I've seen it used appropriately.

[TrustNo1]

I would have to say forums, Wordtracker and SearchSpell the typo generation part.

[Anthony Parsons]

I keep hearing alot about this optilink.....so would you rate it better than Arelis, or same?

[seobook]

I keep hearing alot about this optilink.....so would you rate it better than Arelis, or same?

different concepts and different tools.

arelis = find links by searching for them
optilink = organize competitors backlinks by pagerank and other factors. also shows the keywords in the links and lets you view the different percentages. this is highly useful for when Google (or other engines) make swift algorithmic changes that most most people can't figure out (like during the middle of last november)

that link proctor tool that just came out is very similar to optilink in it's offering and it only costs $67. worth a look to anyone who does SEO for a living.

optilink will do the math to give you the percentage of words in links and the link by link information. link proctor will give you the link by link information but requires you to enter the desired phrase or word to get the percentages for it. link proctor also will spider your site / page and then spider the web to see if link partners are linking back.

[powerofeyes]

We have used Arelis extensively before, It is a link building software, Which fetches URLs from the Google SERPs which helps us to know whom to send link request, But the response was pretty poor using that software, manual link request was much more effective, We stopped using it,,

One Good thing is we can make link pages with predesigned templates or Custom build link pages with Arelis, It is worth a look especially for people who do Professional Link building,

VIJAY,

[sem4u]

Wordtracker, Overture & Espotting suggestion tools.

A log analyser like WebTrends or Weblog Expert.

[ChrisW]

I use Atlas OnePoint (formerly GoToast) for all outlets not named Google. It allows me to handle the bid management and conversion tracking for 10 outlets from any computer with an online connection. The numbers are fairly accurate though it has trouble with a couple of the smaller outlets.

Anyone know of any other 3rd party bid management software/site that allows for both mangement and conversion tracking across all the major outlets?

[mcanerin]

I find you can do a LOT with a well designed speadsheet (ie Excel) . Especially when you use other programs that do their specialty work and then export as csv.

Ian

[AussieWebmaster]

I use Atlas OnePoint (formerly GoToast) for all outlets not named Google. It allows me to handle the bid management and conversion tracking for 10 outlets from any computer with an online connection. The numbers are fairly accurate though it has trouble with a couple of the smaller outlets.

Anyone know of any other 3rd party bid management software/site that allows for both mangement and conversion tracking across all the major outlets?
KeywordMax may have your areas well covered...

[St0n3y]

Slimbrowser
Act
Outlook
Dreamweaver
Custom web-based account management
WordTracker
ClickTracks
Arelis
Perfect Keyboard
BeyondCompare
SpamNet
Norton Virus

[Terry Plank]

I've enjoyed the responses in this thread. Interesting to me are the number of posts that relate to the tools of the trade for the "business" of SEM. I started the thread limiting my thinking to just tools for the optimization/sem. It's helpful to see broader thinking than my limited vision of what it takes to do the work.

Keep me growing folks!

[cline]

ClickTracks
HTML-Kit
Overture Suggestion Tools
WordTracker
Leech FTP
Xenu
link: etc. commands

[Terry Plank]

AdamH mentioned Website CEO for SE ranking. I don't see much in other mention about ranking software.

Web Analytics programs are mentioned a lot. It this any indication that more analysis is going into the stats than into the ranking analysis? Or is it an indication that more of us are using different means than ranking software like WebPosition Gold2 etc. ? Or, or, or...

[AussieWebmaster]

Try www.digitalpoint.com for keyword tracking in Google's organic search... and it's free!

[Daria_Goetsch]

A handy little free tool I use for optimization purposes is Text Tally for submissions. It counts the number of characters, words and lines in a paragraph: http://www.harmonyhollow.net/ttally.shtml

[pageoneresults]

SEO and SEM tools are always hot topics to discuss. Tools should be segmented into different categories. For example...

Ranking Tools
There are quite a few of them out there. Unfortunately the accuracy of most rank checking tools has been on the decline for quite some time.

Submission Tools
Deprecated in favor of manual submissions.

Web Based Metrics Tools
Real time statistics like those from WebTrendsLive or LiveStats.

Server Based Metrics Tools
Technical statistical data such as server errors, spider activity, etc.

Validation Tools
HTML/XHTML, CSS, robots.txt and other code validation tools.

Technical Tools
Server header checker, DNS report, web page download times, web page statistics (size, text to html ratio, images, css, javascript, etc.), spiderability (spider simulators).

WYSIWYG Tools
FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. HTML editors are a necessary part of the marketing toolbox.

Text Editing Tools
In addition to WYSIWYG, text editing tools are also required.

Site Management Tools
Excel, Access, etc. Any type of spreadsheet generating program or it could even be a "Roll Your Own" solution.

Keyword Research Tools
Wordtracker, Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool, Google Keyword Suggestions, etc.
There are many more. I just wanted to cover the basics.

One of the tools I'd like to bring to the forefront is the Server Header Checker (http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp). You'd be surprised what is hiding behind those server headers. You know, like a 200 status when it should be a 301, 302 or even a 404. I have found more problems with web sites through the use of this tool than any other tool that I use.

In today's marketing environment, it is essential that you offer a well rounded list of services. Today's marketeer needs to be educated in a variety of areas, not only optimization. Basic levels of technical understanding are required. You should be familiar with how your server is configured, how it works and why certain things happen when they do.

You should also know about DNS, issues arising out of incorrect DNS configurations, etc.

If on Windows, you should be familiar with ISAPI filters for URI rewriting. If on UNIX/LINUX, you should be up to snuff on the use of mod_rewrite.

The list goes on and on...

P.S. A tool is just that, a tool! It is the user that makes the difference. If you understand the full capabilities of your tools, you will make the most of them. If you don't understand them, they could actually do more harm than good. So, be careful! ;)

[Jeremy_Goodrich]

If anybody has been wondering how to best "drop their link" pageoneresults just showed us how it's done ;) Well done mate!

His tool is useful, and I'll admit myself to stopping by seoconsultants just to check the headers on my sites occassionally.

For tracking sales on a keyword level the only tool I've used is conversionlogic.com, but there are other services which do the same, eg, gotoast, did-it.com's maestro, etc.