Web CEO & WebPosition Gold
SEO Software Review

There are a number of SEO software packages on the market and all claim to be the best. As a result SEO forums are littered with questions from SEO beginners wanting to know which is the best SEO software package.

WebPosition Gold (WPG) was the first SEO software & long dominated the market, however new competitors like Web CEO have come on the scene. Web CEO claims to be used by over 100,00 businesses including Motorola & IBM.

Previously I reviewed Web CEO with WebPosition Gold and concluded WebCEO was the better product, despite being more expensive at the time.

Since that review new versions of WebPositon Gold have been released. Whilst these represent big improvements I still believe Web CEO is the better product. It too has continued to improve and the price has been dropped.

Price-wise there's little difference between them (previously WebCEO was quite a bit more expensive). In addition WebCEO also offers an excellent free version which has a remarkable amount of functionality. If you're on a tight budget that'll probably be sufficient.

Both products offer free trials. I suggest you try Web CEO first because there's no time limit on the trial, so you'll have plenty of time to explore its extensive functionality at your leisure.

Web CEO - unlimited time free trial

In the unlikely event Web CEO doesn't suit you then give WPG a spin, however its trial period is only 30 days.

WebPosition Gold - 30 day free trial

Below is my previous review which provides an overview of what WebCEO offers.

Web CEO 6 Released. Version 6 extends the functionality of this all-purpose SEO suite by enhancing existing tools plus adding two new ones: Link Partner Finder and PPC Campaigns Manager.
Full details here: What's New in Web CEO 6

Original Review...

The great thing about Web CEO is it provides the functionality of 10 different SEO software tools all rolled into a tightly integrated suite. This, combined with a very slick interface, makes it a clear winner in my opinion as a professional SEO.

Modules included are:

1 Keyword research
2 Search engine optimization
3 Webpage editor
4 FTP file uploader
5 Search engine submitter
6 Search engine rankings checker
7 Link popularity checker
8 Website auditor
9 Website uptime monitoring
10 Traffic analysis

All these different tools may seem somewhat daunting and leave you wondering where to start first. However WebCEO is structured so SEO is done in a logical 10 step workflow process using each of the modules. Step 1 is keyword research through to Step 10 which is traffic analysis. This is made clear with the Quicklaunch screen shown each time you open the program (see screenshot below).

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There is also a helpful Quick Start guide which goes through each of these steps in detail and is worth reading if you want to get the most out of Web CEO.

WebCEO comes in several editions with different pricing options & varying levels of functionality. The Free Edition includes all the above program modules (but with some limitations naturally, or no one would ever upgrade!). Despite this the free edition offers a surprising level of functionality and isn't time limited, unlike most trial software. It's well worth trying, even if you're using other SEO software currently.

Web CEO Free - $0
Web CEO SmallBiz - $189 (previously $295)
Web CEO Professional - $389 (previously $495)

There's a useful product & price comparison table that highlights the differences between WebCEO; WebPosition Gold; & another SEO software package here.

Two aspects that impress me are the Rank Checker and the Auditor modules.

With the Rank Checker you can use a Google API key to query Google. I strongly recommend using this if you plan running automated rank checks on Google.

Automated rank checking is against Google's terms of service. If they catch you there's a risk they'll block your access to Google & possibly ban your website. A Google API allows you to run checks without this risk. Web CEO shows you how to get your own API key. In addition to this Web CEO also features sophisticated human search emulation and querying via proxy servers to keep your nose clean with the search engines.

If you're in the market for SEO software you'll probably have heard about WebPosition Gold - the grand daddy of SEO software. You should also know that, rightly or wrongly,WebPosition Gold is specifically singled out by Google as a product not to use. (Like may SEO's I used to use it, but now don't for this reason).

The other thing I like about Web CEO is you can limit reports in Google & Yahoo to just pages from, say UK websites. This feature probably isn't relevant to people in the US, but a real advantage to people outside the US where most users use the local version of Google which allows results filtered just to that country.

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The Auditor Module provides a useful site overview and detects:

Broken internal and external links and anchors
Missing images
Slow pages with a breakdown by page element

A detailed breakdown of problems by page is provided plus an extensive range of reports. The number of pages you can scan is limited in the free edition to 30. To really get benefit from it you'd need to upgrade from the free version of Web CEO to fully check a site. This is one of reasons upgrading to a paid edition is worthwhile.

The Keyword Research Module is a useful keyword research tool. Whilst it has a smaller database of keyword searches to query than WordTracker, it offers additional functionality to view and analyze competitors based on search results; pages with keywords in title tags; # of inbound links; Alexa traffic ranking; & Overture bids.

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The Optimization Module gives a much clearer overview of a page compared to WebPosition Gold's Page Critic. Reporting is broken down into 3 sections: General page properties; On-the-page factors; and Off-the-page factor influencing your ranking. With the WebCEO free edition you only get generic optimization advice. Upgrading to the Small Biz or Professional editions provides optimization advice for specific key search engines (Google, Yahoo etc) plus the ability to directly compare your pages to competitor's or top ranking pages.

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The integrated Webpage Editor won't have you throwing out Dreamweaver or whatever HTML editor you use. And it's not meant to. Rather than building pages from scratch, the Editor is meant for optimizing pages on the fly using feedback the Optimization and Auditor Modules provide. Like the rest of Web CEO it's very effective and easy to use.

The Submitter is a module I haven't tried. Like many SEO professionals I focus on the primary search engines and directories. When submission is required I do so by hand rather than using automated submission.

Obviously you need to ensure you are atrracting the right kind of traffic to your website - i.e. traffic that "converts". This means analyzing the traffic your website gets from search engines & other sources is essential. WebCEO includes a Traffic Tracking module called Hitlens which is easy to use & offers useful ecommerce tracking functionality. Hitlens is optional & additional charges apply based on your monthly traffic. These charges are very competitive compared to HitsLink & other remotely-hosted traffic monitoring services. A 15 day free trial is available.

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As mentioned earlier WebCEO comes in several editions with different pricing options & varying levels of functionality. Unless you go to this table highlighting differences between the editions you can remain blissfully unaware of the enhanced functionality the paid editions provide. Certainly that was the case with me.

I have to admit that until I used the SmallBiz and Professional versions I really didn't appreciate just how good Web CEO is. Upgrading from the Free edition is money well spent.

Review Summary - If you're tossing up between WebPosition Gold & Web CEO I'd definitely recommend you choose Web CEO. It really is very good.

Download the Web CEO free trial from: www.webceo.com/download/

PS Most people tell us they found this review useful or very useful - did you?