Rank Checking Program Issues

Rank checking program and looksmart

[barnetap]

I work at a SEO company and use the latest version of WebPosition Gold to run ranking reports. Lately I've noticed that it hasn't been pulling any results from LookSmart (But when I manually check LookSmart, the sites are still listed).

Has anyone else had issues with WPG2 and LookSmart?

Thanks.

[xcandyman]

Hi and Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

Programs like Webposition are against most Search Engines terms and I advise any checking done manually.

Steve

[barnetap]

In a perfect world, I agree. Unfortunately, usage of WPG2 is consistent with our company policy. In addition, there is simply not enough hours in the day to manually check the positions.

But, I digress.

Anyone having similar experiences w/ WPG2?

[jeremy goodrich]

Don't use any of those tools myself, but as LookSmart stuff that gets syndicated to MSN can change on a daily basis, this means that if you are dependent on such a tool, you will always find yourself needing to spend time on such reporting. ;)

Why not find a way to increase your advertiser's ROI on their budget with you, so that they in turn spend more, instead of chasing a bit of info that, all things considered, has little impact on the advertiser's bottom line (aside from ego stroking).

[digitalghost]

>>there is simply not enough hours in the day to manually check the positions.

Nor is there a need to manually check the positions, but no matter what, people will assign importance to "checking rank". Forget about ranking and start looking at log data. Pin down the phrases that can be improved upon, find out what pages are converting, spend more time improving conversion rates and working on phrases that are only netting a few referrals per month and stop wasting time on position checks. Save that for bragging rights.

>>Unfortunately, usage of WPG2 is consistent with our company policy

Whoop. It's not consistent with the TOS of the engines you are checking your position on.

Find a better metric than "position" to determine best practices.

[barnetap]

All valid points. Yes, there ARE better metrics to gauge the success of an optimization program and it is indeed against the TOS of the search engines. But, this wasn't my question. Nor did I intend to spark a debate about the legality or ethics of WPG2. We can do that in another thread.

I simply was wondering if anyone (as morally corrupt as myself) has experienced problems with WPG2 and LookSmart results.

Thanks!