Best SEO Software
I have tried many many of the available tools offered by different companies over the years. I use a Mac running OSX10.6 so I don't have quite as many options as compared to if I was running Windows. I have been using Caphyon's Advanced Web Ranking and Advanced Link Manager for several years. The reasons I chose Caphyon's products are:
1) They run effectively on OSX.
2) Both tools are kept up to date and current.
3) The interfaces are intuitive.
4) The default reports are right on the money in terms of information my clients need.
Advanced Web Ranking:
AWR is the first application I open every morning to review my client's current site rankings. I use the default ranking report as the basic tool with each client on a monthly basis. My clients find the ability to reference each keyword term to a specific position on Google and see the change from the previous month as a very easy metric to understand. I also add 1 or 2 of their competitors using the "Suggest Competition" feature and am able to show my clients how they are displacing others as they move up.
I have recently upgraded to the Enterprise Edition of AWR from the Professional Edition to take advantage of the ability to use proxies. As my client list has grown, I have become limited without the ability to update the projects quickly enough. I could use the feature built into AWR to emulate a human but with the large number of clients and keyword terms, the update time has become too long. although I an pretty computer literate, I have avoided going down the proxy route not due so much to the cost but more so my expectation that it would be hard to set up. All told, the setup time to use multiple proxies in AWR was about 10 minutes and is running flawlessly. I know use a 20 server proxy package that has allowed me to greatly expand the number of keyword search terms I track and also to cut down on the amount of time it takes to run the searches.
Setting up new projects is extremely easy. There is a simple step by step guided setup that walks you through choosing the search engines you want to monitor, input the client website and other pertinent information. Then you just click finish and it goes to work. I usually set up a project with about 10 keyword terms and use the report as a sales tool when I go to visit a potential client. One of the nice features is the ability to use AWR as your keyword research tool. I have the default preferences setup so that AWR automatically suggests keyword terms using Google data; this is a real time saver.
April 2011 Update: Every once in a while, I take a look around to see what else is out there in terms of tools. At one time or another I have purchased just about all of them. I spent some time looking earlier this week and Advanced Web Ranking is still #1 in my mind.
Advanced Link Manager:
Advanced Link Manager is Caphyon's companion tool. I use it to track the evolution of inbound link building into my various websites. Like AWR, it provides a very easy setup, updating and reporting. One new feature that I think Caphyon should consider adding to Advanced Link Manager is it to synchronize project settings with AWR so that you don't have to set each one up separately; that being said, setup is quick and easy. I usually run Advanced Link Manager on each of my client's sites once monthly.
One of the best features of Advanced Link Manager is the "Link Text" tool that will create a pie chart showing the anchor text of incoming links. I use this as a selling tool with potential clients to show them how ineffective their existing inbound links typically are and then how they evolve over time. Most clients start out with like text like "visit our website" or "click here"; anyone with any SEO experience knows this is less than optimal. After a few months of working with them, I use Advanced Link Manager to produce reports showing the new link popularity.
The most useful screens on Advanced Link Manager I have found are to monitor the number of pages indexed by each of Google, Bing and Yahoo. Experience tells you that if the search engines aren't finding and indexing your web pages then you have a real problem. This is usually the first place I look, then I move on to monitoring the link text and looking for changes there and finally I look at the referrers report to see which links have increased or decreased. Advanced Link Manager has a great feature in that it will calculate the link value of each of the referrers; this is another great time saver. I often can duplicate some high value links into one clients' site and add them to another client as well. Another trick is to run Advanced Link Manager on a competitor's site to determine where they are getting their best link juice from.