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 At the special request of my
students, I've taken a long look at WebPosition Gold 3 ( http://www.webposition.com
), and I can honestly say I'm amazed at how this software
program has matured and developed through the years.
Let's take a tour of the most popular software program in
the search engine marketing industry, and let's see
"what's new" in WebPosition 3.
The New Interface . . .
When you first open the software, past users of
WebPosition will be surprised at the totally new
interface. It's clean, simple, and quite appealing. You
can still click on New or Open on the top toolbar to start
a new project or open an existing one, or you can click on
any of the icons on the left-hand side of the screen.
Important: If you experience any problems connecting to
the Internet via WebPosition, try adding WebPosition to
your accepted programs list in your firewall software. Or,
you could try temporarily disabling your firewall to see
if it's related to that. If you still have any problems,
simply write to help@webposition.com.
WebPosition is well known for having a top-notch tech
support department.
Wordtracker Keywords . . .
With WebPosition 3, you can now conduct keyword research
with Wordtracker right through WebPosition 3! If you don't
have a Wordtracker account, you'll be using the free trial
version of Wordtracker, which means you'll be researching
using the MSN search engine and Keyword Universe. If you
have a Wordtracker account, you can enter your Wordtracker
username and password by clicking on the Edit menu on the
WebPosition toolbar and choosing, "Wordtracker
Settings."
Important: Since WebPosition 3 now has the Wordtracker
keyword area, if you have a Wordtracker account, should
you cancel that account? No! Unless you're going to be
happy with the free trial version of Wordtracker, don't
cancel your Wordtracker account. Instead, use the
WebPosition 3 interface to pull up your existing
Wordtracker account.
Reporter . . .
Though this feature isn't new, my favorite part of
WebPosition has always been Reporter, and it still is.
This one area is worth the cost of the entire software
program.
As search engine marketers, it's important to keep up with
your search engine rankings. You need to know which pages
are ranking in the top 30 for which keywords.
While it's important for you to know your rankings,
remember that you don't need to check your rankings every
day or even every week. Once a month or once every other
week is sufficient.
Use moderation! Don't check hundreds or thousands of
keywords across several domains. Don't hammer the search
engines. Remember that you're using their resources when
you check rankings. Run ranking reports at night PST.
Page Critic . . .
After creating your pages, you'll want to run them through
a software program for some last minute checks.
For example, is the page too long? Too short? Are you over
using your keyword phrase? Under using it?
WebPosition 3 offers some very helpful suggestions that
you may want to consider.
With WebPosition 3, they've introduced a "Generic
Search Engine, "which I'm particularly pleased about.
Over the last few years, many search engine marketers no
longer create engine specific pages, so having a generic
choice in Page Critic will be extremely helpful.
Tip to make Page Critic easier to use: When you first
begin using Page Critic, you may find it easier to focus
on the Page Averages section only. Click on that tab at
the top of the Page Critic results. Go through each of the
suggestions.
But, if you can't make the change or if it doesn't work
for you, move on. Don't spend hours stressing over it. If
you want to work with other sections of Page Critic after
you get used to the program, you can certainly do so. But
by cutting down on the amount of information you're
focusing on in the beginning, you may feel it's not as
overwhelming.
 Mission Manager . . .
I'm very impressed with this new addition to WebPosition!
But first, let me explain what "missions" are.
Every time you work on a project in WebPosition, you're
creating a "mission." For example, when you run
a ranking report on a particular domain, you're running a
Reporter "mission" on that domain.
When you run a page through Page Critic, you're running a
Page Critic "mission" on that page.
Mission Manager lets you manage those missions from one
central location. I can see where this area will be
particularly handy for those people who manage several
domains. You can see at a glance which missions are
scheduled to be run and at what times.
WebTrends Analytics . . .
This one area of WebPosition is a little confusing, mainly
because WebTrends has many different software and
Web-based solutions.
However, please don't let the choices stop you from trying
WebTrends. Analyzing the traffic to your site is a crucial
"next step" to success for your online business,
and WebTrends has always been a leader in log analysis
solutions.
In the beginning, why not try WebTrends On Demand, which
is a Web-based service where you're given a small amount
of code to cut and paste to the bottom of each of your Web
pages. When you want to check your log files, you can log
into their Web site. It's an easy-to-use, cost effective
solution that you'll certainly want to consider. (Trial
version: http://www.netiq.com/webtrends/products/webtrends/trial.asp)
Cost Remains the Same . . .
One thing that has really impressed me is that WebPosition
has kept the cost of this new version the same, though
they certainly could have justified a price increase.
Plus, if you have a current version of WebPosition, you
can upgrade at a 50%discount. Very fair! (Trial version: http://www.webposition.com/order/trial.asp)
In Conclusion . . .
WebPosition Gold 3 ( http://www.webposition.com
) has once again proven to be the leader in search engine
marketing software. This exciting new software program
deserves a long look by anyone in the SEO industry.
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