A short while ago I was in the market for a good Mac based SEO/SEM software. I had recently switched from a PC to a Mac and so I needed to find software to replace what I had on the PC. Now I do have a virtual PC installed in which I could install PC based software on my Mac, but I really only want to use that for cross browser testing and old software that I switch to the Mac.
While searching online for good ranking software, I came across a few applications that run on Mac that seemed to be the main contenders for SEO/SEM ranking software. I tested Advanced Web Ranking, a website ranking software by Caphyon. Of all the software I tested, this application seemed to stand out the most. To start off, while many of the competitor software restricted features in their limited trial, AWR (Advance Web Ranking) gives you full access to everything!
Features:
Advance Web Ranking does not fall short of features, and while you can see list of the features on the web ranking software site, I will try to pick out some favorites of mine that stand above the rest.
Search Engine Reporting
One of the more important features to me was the ability to create white labeled reports for clients. AWR is awesome when it comes to reporting. You can use the default template setup to create a report or create a template that matches your companies branding so that your delivering a complete self branded package to your SEM clients. Reporting has every just about every which way to deliver the report to you and/or your client; Email, Export PDFs, Export Excel, Export Html, and upload to FTP. I personlly email to clients and upload reports to a client section via FTP.
You have a few reports you can do and also you can personalize your reports to a pretty good depth. The main reporting capability is current site rank, keyword rank, overview,top sites report, and visibility reports. These go a long way to providing your clients with an in depth view of sites progress and ranking trends. Reports can be done on site level, keyword levels, and search engine level. As well as, outputting specific search engines and/or keywords only.
Search Engines
As expected Advanced Web Ranking covers all search engines and even is already showing Microsoft’s Bing results. All the big boys are available and countless small search engines. AWR also covers individual Google data center rankings if you want get that detailed in your reporting. On top of that, AWR is constantly keeping updated with the SEs, so you don’t have to.
Ranking Evolutions
Ranking Evolutions in time is a feature that I use to track my personal progress of my work. It’s a great benchmark to tell if your link building campaigns are successful or not. You can track the ranking trends for the website or for keywords. If you are working with a client on brand management this is a good way to track positive and negative trends on your clients brand.
See What They See
One thing that can be a bit of frustration is when search results differ based on users geographic location. Advanced Web Rankings has that covered for you. You can add proxy settings to your clients location to see what your clients are seeing. There is nothing more embarrassing that telling your client their site is ranking in a certain position when they see it differently.
Keys, API’s, and More
When your doing the research of finding site rankings for search engines, you often have to use API keys to access detailed and extensive search data. AWR has you covered on this too. Not only does it allow you to plug in your Google & Yahoo API’s but also stack them, so that when one API limit is up, AWR will automatically move to the next API.
Keyword Research
So keyword research can be a pain in the rear. Advanced Web Ranking also features the ability to research keywords using the Keyword Research Tool. AWR has an interface to plug into Google’s keyword research tool, word tracker, and more. I find personally that this is best used for finding what keywords to search for ranking with. Having all the keyword sources in one location helps quite a bit in my organization of sometimes millions of keyword phrases.
Interface
The AWR interface was fairly easy to use and comprehend. It seems to be based on a windows GUI so that probably helped me with knowing where to look for things, but long time Mac users shouldn’t have any problems adjusting to it. Short cuts to the actions most needed and used are always available on the left side, and sectional help is ready to go on the right. Speaking of help, I was able to get up to speed quickly with the getting started tutorial that comes ready to go when you start the application. It will help you get going quickly.
Overall Impression
First of all, I want to be completely honest with you. AWR does offer a free copy to those who review their software. That being said, we liked this application so much we have bought an enterprise copy for the office and I decided to review it. I personally would have written this review whether or not there is a reward because I am sold. Advanced Web Ranking is easy to use, loaded with more features than everyone else out there, and allows me to look great for my clients too! I would recommend this application for anyone who needs to track their web rankings.
You can download a 30 days trial of the web site ranking software and get more information about it from their website.
PS
Have you tried AWR? What is your thoughts of the application?