BeOnTop - Site Ranking & SEO Tool

Any Feedback Available?

[austtr]

Has this been on the market long enough for some assessments to be available from within our groups?

Seems that the product is about checking rankings, comparing differences with the top sites and highlighting areas of difference. I like the idea of have an analysis tool available that saves me time and makes it easier to do my job.... but I'd like some feedback from my peers before further consideration.

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ps... I have no commercial connection with the product/company. Just an interested possible end-user.

[Filipe]

Well, austtr I refrained from posting anything at first because I thought someone who had used the product would post, but I guess a lot of people are in the same league as I.

I don't recommend using any commercial product for optimization. The only thing I do recommend as an aid to SEO is web ranking software. SEO should be done by someone with knowledge of up-to-date methodology, and should be done by hand.

As opposed to SEO products, SEO services are more reliable - but do your research first and beware of fraud, because there's a ton of it out there.

I've never personally known anyone to have success with these products. They promise a lot but deliver damn near nothing.

[edited by: Marcia at 11:19 pm (utc) on Sep. 6, 2002]

[edited by: Filipe at 11:35 pm (utc) on Sep. 6, 2002]

[fathom]

From someone who has purchased his share of commercial (with regret).

There is nothing out there that saves you time although many think they are doing 10 hours of work in 15 minutes. (It's a little like driving 10 miles to a 24 hour grocery store right now because the store across the street won't be open for another 10 minutes).

Automatic "Rank Trackers" reek havoc on search engines and for that Google has specifically indicated penalities can occur. One consideration here "Rank Trackers" are post analysis tools they don't approve your results, they just allow an ego trip or help you develop an ulcer. (special note -- the file size of your log file is a good indication of how your ranks are and if you targeted the right keywords.

Competitive Analysis tools - Without definitive knowledge of what you can and can't do (spam or not to spam) these design tools can be deadly. If site #1 is spam and you emulate them (only better), I guarantee you will be blacklisted long before they are.

Most commercial software are template tools (one size fit all) and your site is unique -- or at least it should be. Not only that - each page of your site is unique and although these tools may seem to increase your productivity they don't.

Push / Pull

Push a site out at the speed of light - pulls the site down in its potential.

My two cents anyway (but I never tried the referenced product either).

Good Luck, Fathom

[chowcat]

I have no experience with this tool either, although I know a fellow web designer who has used other tools available from the same company that have totally destroyed his rankings and got him in all sorts of trouble. I'd say stick to doing it manually, there are only really a hand full of search engines worth ranking in so why not just check them and optimise them manually.?