Whats the score with Web Position ****????

[giddion]

I would just like to ask for peoples views on Web Position **** “page critic”

I have been doing SEO for a while now, and achieved good results.

I have been advised to use web position gold’s “page critic” to optimise titles and descriptions.

But is it all it’s cracked up to be??? I heard is was good in it's day but it's past it now.

Your views would be appreciated

[highman]

Welcome giddion :hi:

I have been doing SEO for a while now, and achieved good results

If you're doing well then, IMO you are far better off using your own knowledge than using WPG page critic, I used it once about 2 years ago.... binned

Unless its changed a lot recently, other members here may use it ?

[giddion]

Thanks for making me feel welcome highman:D

And thanks for your feedback.

I'm under a little pressure to give WPG a go. But I’m unsure!

I keep getting a mixture of opinions - many BAD!

I've been told it's the industry standard. So I thought it best to ask the industry before I commit myself to something that is a waste of time and will not achieve any better results than I already am.

[highman]

You could always 'give it a go' - try it on one page, it would prove the point.

You could then give us an update? :cool:

[Kal]

I stopped using the Page Critic about 12 months ago and even before that I only used it to "critique" some of my own techniques. If you want to use it, feel free but I wouldn't rely too much on the advice given. Trial and error will tell you what works best, IMO. :cheers:

[OptWizard]

Use your knowledge and the WPG as a little guide to what they engines are looking for. If you Opt well with out it then why use it?

[ihelpyou]

WPG critic? Not. Industry standard? lol.

Simply read in here.

[stevew]

I've used Web Position ****, and AddWeb, in the past and while they're clever packages, they surely only give a guide - you must use your own knowledge (and improve that) rather than hope any software will do it for you.

As your understanding increases, so your flexibility to respond to changes out there will benefit - otherwise you'll need to wait for a software upgrade !!! :ohmy:

Isn't it the same with designing sites ? DreamWeaver, for example, is a seriously competent package, but you need to understand the process to use it properly. And then - why not hand code anyway to keep complete control (and take things further) ???

IMHO, software packages are great for learning, but to be seriously competent, you need to leave them behind. :slywink:

[Aesopian]

Page Critic makes a good guide, but its not the gospel. I recommend putting sites through it when you're first starting off, and everyone once in a while when you want a second opinion.

But in all honesty, its not that hard to know more than it does. By the third time I'd ever ran it on a page, the only thing it could find wrong was that I had written more copy than it thought I should, which isn't really a problem.

Page Critic also focus mainky on keyword density. While I haven't tried it yet, GRSeo (http://www.grsoftware.net/search_engines/software/grseo.html) seems to have more critiques, warnings and suggestions, about other subjects like stop words, using your keywords in the left cell of your table, and so on. Can anyone give me a review of this program?

[motiv8x]

you may want to just use my tool (see signature)

[stevew]

Can anyone give me a review of this program? Bought it a while ago and, mostly, it tends to state the obvious.
Annoyingly, repeats the same "advice" every time you run it.
Even more annoyingly, it doesn't analyse pages remotely, so you have to View Source and save the code to your hard drive first. And if you use server-side coding like asp, php, etc it won't even read these files on your hard drive - you need to (yes, again) View Source and save it. Big word of warning here : use a separate folder or you'll run the risk of over-writing your existing source code!
I thought I'd keep it anyway as a backstop, but I've not got round to using it on a commercial project.
It's only my opinion, but I don't know what all the "rave reviews" were about ... it's no more than a handy thing to have.

And, the Keyword Density Analyser (KDA) again (from the same people) handy to have, but it suffers from the same problem with reading remote files and interpreting server-side code. And there are other tools out there that are free and much quicker to use.

They're probably useful if you're trying to squeeze the last bit of performance out of your pages ... and you have the time to use them ... but it may be better to spend the time on getting a few more quality links into your site.

[Basileios]

I have been lurking for some time around here, so against it is time to 'out' myself. here is my two cents:

Although not the most experienced SEO I use page critique just for comparison reasons (and not even that often). It does tend to state the obvious and I suspect if you are just starting then it can be a good assistant, but i would trust the art and science of trial and error for more...

basil

[Jodi]

WPGold isn't a bad program or anything for what it is, but I'm with Kal. I stopped using the page critic function a long long time ago.

Frankly, as far as that's concerned, there are a lot of other factors involved in a top-ranking website that don't specifically have to do with individual pages. WPGold kinda misses the "big picture" in that respect and those of us that do this for a living need to rely on our own marketing instincts to fill in the blanks.

A program isn't going to tell you to write your copy so that you're not only using pertinent keywords, but so that you're connecting with your potential clients (using "you" instead of being general and distant in your writing). A program can't tell you if there are usability issues with a site (excluding the use of frames and flash) that might be keeping your visitors from completing a transaction or finding what they want to find as quickly and easily as possible. Etc.

As SEM professionals, it's not only our job to make pages that work for the search engines, but also to make pages that work for our clients' visitors - ie: human beings - to help those websites sell whatever it is they're selling and make a connection with those people that are interested in buying what they're selling (and even if that website isnt "selling" anything, the visitors should "buy into" the concept of whatever it is that's offered on the site). Relying on a program like WPGold seems to me to take out the human element a bit too much. Unless you really know what you're doing, you can possibly do more harm to your site than good.

The better way to go would be to read forums like this place (I love this place :) ), or SEO Chat (http://www.seochat.com/), to visit websites like Search Engine Watch (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/) (and subscribe to their excellent newsletters) and to think about subscribing to a few sections of the ClickZ (http://www.clickz.com/) network. There are a number of marketing-related newsletters that they put out in the form of regular columns that can be really useful.

Just my opinion, of course.

Good luck, giddion!

All the best,

--Jodi

[solo]

Thanks for the great link!