I've been reading lots on the use of automated ranking software and how SE's feel about them, and I have tried a number of the freebies with surprisingly widely varying and inaccurate results. AWR was recommended as it behaves as a manual search would and the results were dead accurate.

Are there other ranking software applications that perform in the same manner that won't upset the SE's ?

And in your humble opinions, would a subscription to a ranking service like AWR be a worthwhile investment given the time that it would save ?

Thanks
Robyn

From Google's list of Do's and Don'ts:
"Send automated queries to Google in an attempt to monitor your site's ranking"

If you use page rank checking tools such as AWR too much, in Google's opinion, they will take action against you.

And I suppose that everyone here would agree that doing our own manual checking would be the best approach ?

It is DETECTABLE, despite the claims

<quote>From Google's list of Do's and Don'ts:
"Send automated queries to Google in an attempt to monitor your site's ranking"</quote>

This is from the "Don'ts" part.

<quote>If you use page rank checking tools such as AWR too much, in Google's opinion, they will take action against you.</quote>

It's GOOGLE who will take action against you, not the tool such as AWR.

So there you go, just to clarify OAC's lack-of-sleep induced advice

Yes, it is generally seen as VERY UNKIND to use these programs to occupy the Google servers with queries. Unless they're about to release their monthly query count

Being a portal, we cover a lot of information in our pages and would like to check the rankings of at least the index page of each of the sitelets, which would contain many important keywords and phrases.

To do this manually would require an awful lot of time and probably a staff member full time to cover.

Any suggestions ?

Thanks
Robyn

It is not the number of pages that is the problem, but rather the number of search terms (phrases).

As suggested above, do 40 terms a day in the Google non peak times, spaced a few minutes apart and search each term once a month. I wouldn't be searching more than 120 terms. You should be able to configure your software appropriately.

Remember - automated searches breach Google's TOS so the advice I am giving you you be treated the same way as advice about speeding on the highways (i.e. the cops are unlikely to write you a ticket if you are doing just a few miles an hour over the speed limit but that doesn't 100% certainly mean they won't).

Most people will advise you to never use an automated rank checker with Google.

Is it just Google that objects ?

I could possibly set up AWR to check the other SE's and do Google myself manually once a month. This would alleviate at least some of the burden.

Does this sound like a plan ?

Thanks
Robyn

Thanks for your help OAC.

Robyn

I unfortunatley learned the hard way about Google's dislike of automated rank checking software.

I don't use it on Google any more, but also don't for AOL or Yahoo, as it will check web page results and therefore query google.

Its a pain, but I would recommend caution.