Tools for Search Engine Optimization: SEO Studio Reviewed

By Donald Nelson, copyright 2004

When it comes to search engine optimization, there is no free lunch or magic shortcut that will enable you to get top rankings without any effort or merit. However, there are a few submission, optimization and ranking tools which, when placed in the hands of competent web managers, can greatly ease the task of conducting website promotion campaigns. Here is a brief survey of one product that might be useful for you.

SEO Studio is a comprehensive software package that helps with the following tasks: 1. search engine submission 2. keyword analysis and selection 3. conducting reciprocal link campaigns and 4. checking the position of web pages in search engines queries.

Before I get into the capabilities of SEO Studio, one thing should be said: it is possible to conduct all of these tasks “by hand” especially if you have only one or two sites and if you have a good grasp of what is involved. For example, SEO Studio has a great submission tool but if you only have one site all you have to do is make a manual submission to Yahoo, and get a few links to your site from web pages that are already indexed in search engines and you will end up being listed in the major search engines due to the work of their spiders which follow links on the pages that are already in the data base. When the robots find a new page, they add it to the index.

That said, if you want to be sure to be included in search engines, and if you have several sites to take care of, the SEO Studio submission tool is handy. It allows you to automatically submit your site to around 60 top search engines. In addition, the tool is constantly updated and when you log onto the program you can get the updates and changes. For example, a recent update added the new MSN search engine to the list.

If you are a webmaster with several sites or handle the submission for client sites, the SEO Studio provides reports on the submissions. It also allows you to track manual submissions as well and record them in the reports.

Keyword Analysis and Reciprocal Link Tools

At the heart of search engine optimization is the selection and placement of keywords. SEO studio has a tool that allows you to check the keyword density in the various places of your web page: meta tags, headers, link text, alt image text, image names, file names, bold text etc. You can also use the tool to check the web pages of your competitors as well. It also has a feature that lets you connect with the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool and Espotting to get alternative keywords. The keyword analyzer is powerful, but you still have to decide how often you want your keywords to appear on your web page.

Like the keyword analyzer the reciprocal ranking tool is multifunctional. It makes automated searches on several search engines looking for link partners according to the keyword parameters that you set. It retrieves information (page rank, Alexa rank, inbound links) about the potential partner sites, and also has a link campaign management tool.

Ranking Tools

Checking the rankings of your websites in various search engines can really seem like an insurmountable task. Have you ever gone through page after page to find out where your site stood in Google? SEO Studio has a tool to automate this process, but before you start using this tool there are a few things to consider.

First, here is a shortcut to analyzing your standing in the search engines. If your web host has a good statistics program (such as Webalizer or Awstats) or if you are able to analyze your access logs, you will see which keywords and keyword phrases people are using when they reach your website and you will see which search engines were used in these queries. These are the keywords for which you rank well, and if some keywords are not appearing in the queries then it means that you do not rank well for these items. You don’t have to sift through pages and pages of search engine results to realize this.

In addition, search engines do not like automated queries made on their data bases because it ties up their resources. Rank checking programs may sometimes be considered a violation of the search engine’s terms of use and could result in penalization of urls associated with the violation. SEO Studio says that its queries are search engine friendly, and I have used the product without any adverse affects. Overall the SEO studio at the price of $79 for a full version has been well worth it for me and I haven’t even explored the full use of all the tools. It would probably also meet the needs of anyone else who handles the promotion chores of several websites at a time. You can download a free version of the software and try it out by visiting http://www.a1-optimization.com/seostudio.htm
 

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995, and is currently the director of A1-Optimization (http://www.a1-optimization.com), a firm providing low cost search engine optimization, submission and web promotion services.