Client Reports & Submissions

[sduquette]

I'm new to this forum and don't know exactly where this question should be, but here goes. I'm looking for some software that will provide professional client reports on where their web traffic is coming from and the use of their keywords (keyphrases) and such. I also am wondering if any of the site submissions softwares actually work. I've been researching:
Web Trends, Web Position Gold, Net Tracker, Commando & Top Dog. All these guys say they are the best. I've been doing submissions manually and it's so time consuming. Can anyone out there point me in the right direction? Or at least tell me what to stay away from? Thanks.

[fathom]

Most of the ones you have researched goes against the Terms of Service (TOS) of search engines - automatic querying of their archives is prohibited.

For Google however http://www.seocount.com is based on Google's own API technology and is acceptable... and the reports provided are quite good, and reasonably priced.

As for other search engines - you take your chances... but remember that Google results is also Yahoo, AOL, and Netscape thus 80% plus, of the searching market.

[minstrel]

Just to add to what fathom said, Google actually mentions Web Position Gold by name of an example of what not to use for automated submission;

- Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our terms of service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

...although other members here have pointed that even so the program is useful for other features.

I hadn't heard of SEO Count, fathom - I was surprised to see them talking about 1000 queries a day as being acceptable to Google. Any idea what that means and why it isn't considered a violation per the quote from Google above?

[Mel]

SEOcount uses Googles own api which allows up to 1000 automated searches per day per user license so each user has to get a free license from Google and use that when searching via the api.

It should be noted that the results from api searches can be somewhat different than searches on Google itself, since it does not use clustering and does not derive its data from the same datacenter (or database) as regular search results, but the differences are minor for the most part.

[minstrel]

Well... learned something new here again :-)

See Google's own description here.

Although this part confused me (bottom of page) - I presume then that there is also a commercial version?

Google Web APIs are a free beta service and are available for non-commercial use only. Please see our terms of service.

[ronniethedodger]

Although this part confused me (bottom of page) - I presume then that there is also a commercial version?

Per there FAQ's

13. Can I develop commercial applications using Google Web APIs?
You can develop any application you want, but you must abide by the Google Web APIs terms of service. One condition is you cannot create a commercial service using Google Web APIs without first obtaining written consent from Google. Another is that you can only create one account for your personal use.

So I guess the answer is Yes....provided you can get them to even answer your request for written consent. ;0)