RGdot

Tag: keyword

  • Keyword Tracking With Rankaware

    Keyword Tracking With Rankaware

    Search engine optimization remains crucial to all those who own or manage websites. Rankaware is one user friendly tool to keep a tab on a site’s performance on search engines.

    Rankaware installs easily and it is available for both Windows and Mac computers. The first step is to add a website to monitor. The program works in that it checks the position of a keyword on search engine results pages (SERP). The process starts by adding the site address of course, keywords that Rankaware will check on and up to three search engines. Google, Bing and Yahoo are available with their various country domains. The program allows the user to pick one, two or three engines.

    It is possible to set a schedule to run the program again and look for any changes that occur to the site’s keywords positions on the aforementioned search engines. Once a day, a week or month are available with the time of day to run as well. Optionally it is possible to run the check everytime the program is started.

    All that is left to click apply and wait for it to scan the engines and generate the results. The results page is simple but attractive with a pie chart showing the keyword position on the results page. Any position above 100 needs work and is not really considered a useful SERP.

    RGdot used to rank relatively high in several freeware keywords but that has changed with the inactivity on the site. Rankaware can track changes and will show them in the CHG column in subsequent runs of the program.

    Rankaware is available in three licences. A free version which only checks one site on one computer. The expert version can be used to monitor unlimited number of sites and generate reports with white label branding. The business version can run on more than one computer. The two paid versions currently cost $49.97 and $99.97 respectively, these are per year.

  • Speed Launch From Microsoft Office Labs Is An Interesting Launcher

    Speed Launch From Microsoft Office Labs Is An Interesting Launcher

    Speed Launch is created by Microsoft’s Office Labs. The office labs is one experimental arm of Microsoft that is sometimes not too busy on the public side and develops products that one may not necessarily associate with the company. Speed Launch is perhaps one such example and is a program that has many other freeware equivalents.
    Speed Launch
    Upon installation Speed Launch places a bulls eye looking icon on the desktop that stays on top of all windows but dims to stay as unobtrusive as possible. Using the win + c keys the program pops up a set of what it calls functions. The set of built-in functions can be activated by clicking on them. They allow for such things as searching for weather forecasts and wikipedia pages.
    Being a launcher Speed Launch has an interesting way to make routine tasks easier. Dragging and dropping any shortcut, file or site favicon into the bulls eye allows the user to associate an intuitive keyword with it and to later use it to open the same program, document or website. Keywords can also be added manually via the program’s ‘Add Shortcuts’ menu (by right clicking on the bulls eye).
    Speed Launch also supports more advanced functions. These are the equivalent of launching a program or website – that has a shortcut created in Speed Launch – with parameters. One example used in the video on the program’s website shows how by choosing a keyword followed by “.” (dot without quotes) one can make a function that loads a map of a certain location without the need to enter the map’s homepage and then typing the desired location. It is therefore and like any other program launcher a way to save time and key strokes. Another interesting feature built-in is what is called the MegaSearch. Typing megaseach. and a search term launches the query in bing.com, yahoo.com and google.com. Again something not readily associated with Microsoft of the past.
    Office Labs calls Speed Launch a ‘prototype’ and requires the user to allow anonymous usage feedback, however I am not certain if this program is being very actively developed as it is termed a grassroots project that is a ‘direct result of employee initiative’.