I think it goes without saying that all companies doing business today recognize the importance of having a website to promote the company’s products and services. However, not all companies understand the extreme importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Like it or not, SEO has become a necessary part of business operations. If Google doesn’t sufficiently love the content of your website, then your site will suffer in Google’s search rankings. If potential clients and customers aren’t finding your website through a Google search for keywords that describe the products and services that you offer, then you are losing countless amounts of business.
Just to make it less abstract, let’s say that you have a company called Midas Touch. The primary product that Midas Touch makes is 14K gold paperclips, and there’s a customer out there who is in dire need of replenishing his or her stock of 14K gold paperclips. When this potential customer types in the keywords “14K paperclips” in Google, you want to make sure that Midas Touch’s site is the first thing they see. If the Midas Touch website doesn’t have enough unique, original content, or if the website isn’t updated on a regular basis, however, then Google is going to punish Midas Touch by sending its website to the bottom of the Google search listings. Instead of appearing on page 1 of the search for “14K paperclips,” the Midas Touch website might be found on page 6 or 7.
So instead of Midas Touch getting the order for 1,000,000 14K gold paperclips, your competitor, Goldfingerz, who has a website chockablock full of unique, relevant content, no Adobe Flash, loads of inbound links and a constantly updated blog that keeps the public aware of the changes in the 14K gold office supply market, will end up making the big sale due to a great page rank and top position in Google’s search engine on page 1 for the search term “14K paperclips.”
For me (and I’m sure I’m not alone), tracking web rankings, visitors, keywords, etc. on a regular basis can an incredibly boring, monotonous and abstract activity. It most certainly is if you are tracking page rankings and keywords by searching for your “golden” keywords yourself, and manually logging the results in a spreadsheet. Although Google Analytics is great for tracking visitors, as well as the keywords that visitors have used to get to your site, it doesn’t help you determine where your site is appearing in Google or other search engines for all of your top keywords.
Thankfully, I found an incredibly useful tool called Advanced Web Ranking. Advanced Web Ranking is SEO software that makes compiling data and analyzing search engine rankings for my site (site ranking) an efficient and painless task. It generates comprehensive and clear reports for all my important keywords so I don’t have to create them manually. Advanced Web Ranking also tracks my keywords in search engines beyond Google. Yahoo, MSN and other search engines are also included. Additionally, Advanced Web Ranking has a great keyword research tool.

With its easy-to-use browser-like interface, Advanced Web Ranking makes it easy for me to keep up-to-date with my website’s position in Google and other search engines, which makes the task almost enjoyable!
For more information on Advanced Web Ranking SEO software, visit their site at www.advancedwebranking.com

