We used to look at hits until we learned hits was deceiving…

Unique Hits

We looked at unique hits and it was better, but still not a true metric. Fake traffic can be generated…

Ranking

We used SEO and PPC more, ranking was important. High ranking was a need. Nearer to the top was what everyone wanted. Until we realized, ranking gives nothing but a rank. It did not always increase revenue.

Conversions

So we concentrated on conversions. These were leads, sales, downloads, and more. Something we can tie into a revenue price and calculate profitability. But today making a sale or any type of conversion may just be satisfying a need, but not engaging the client.

Engagement

Today, engagement is the new measurement. The new web analytics buzz word. Web engagement, customer engagement, social media engagement. Where there are still quite puzzling to measure. But when the day comes when we can somehow measure it in some effective standard way, I wonder what will be measure next?

What’s Next?

Share what you think is next, or let’s just wait and see what comes.

• Keyword Research – Not really the best tool around. And does not seem to come close to WordTracker. But then again WordTracker is for keyword research alone as WebCEO offers a wider range of tools to use.
• Site Submission – I rate this to be very good. Submission to search engine friendly directories always helps and there are several tools out there, and several services and people you can actually pay to do submissions for you, but once you get WebCEO, submissions are done flawlessly. There is an area for automated submissions and also manual submissions where automating submissions are not allowed. Other details are also specified like a link back is required, if payments are required, if your website is only for a certain country and other details. It has a submission record tracking for you to not get lost in how your submissions are going. It works great.
• Ranking Analysis – One of the best tools I like, they have a ranking report checker and also they can generate traffic reports. Although traffic reports require some extra payment for that service, the ranking reports are free and you can run anytime. You can select from their long list of search engines and directories to check the ranking of your website. Their reports are customizable to have your company name and logo for your own SEO company branding that you can give out to clients.
• Site Maintenance – You can change some parameters of your site and give the FTP settings to your server. You can check it’s quality and also monitor the site uptime. But I do not use this tool that often. Sites with dynamic content coming from databases will not work with this.

Do I recommend this tool? Yes I do. The site submissions and ranking reports outweigh the drawbacks for me. Being an SEO, making professional looking ranking reports for your clients is really a great plus. Using WebCEO may cost you, but usually this cost is nothing once you get your first SEO client. And you can download a free version with limited capabilities to get a feel of it’s power. And once you buy the software, you also get a free training and certification from WebCEO. Overall, it is worth the purchase.