IBP rounds out its arsenal of search promotion tools with a Web site submission tool, search engine rankings checker, a marketing ROI Optimizer tool, and a scheduler for automating tasks like rank checking and search engine submission.
The Web site search engine submission tool claims to automate the process of submitting your site(s) to various search engines without being considered an automated search engine spammer, a fate suffered by many of the automatic submission tools on the market. In our testing, we found the tool to live up to its claims, automating the majority of the process and leaving only the validation codes for us to manually enter.
The search engine rankings checker will automatically and efficiently check a variety of search engines for all your keywords at once and then provide a report that provides you with an up-to-the-minute analysis of where your Web site ranks and how effective your SEO efforts have been to date.
The Axandra Marketing ROI Optimizer (AxROI) helps you track the effectiveness of all your online ads, including pay-per-click ads, banner ads, text link ads, and non-paid search engine rankings. The AxROI tool was not tested as part of this review.
All of these features are shared by the two editions of IBP currently available (standard and business), with the more expensive business edition adding support for an unlimited number of projects/clients/domains, the ability to create special reports that can be personalized for clients, and reports available in Microsoft Word format. This edition is designed for Web agencies and businesses that need to manage more than five domains at a time, according to Axandra.
The Bottom Line
Overall, while Internet Business Promoter doesn't come cheap — $249 for the standard edition and $449 for the business edition — for small business owners and independent Web contractors, don't be surprised to see the SEO and Website promotion suite easily pay for itself in a short period of time.
Our testing found IBP to considerably improve our test sites' rankings, with patience a definite virtue in this case. Search engine success doesn't happen overnight, and in many cases we didn't see significant improvements from our efforts until several months into the SEO campaigns.
We should also mention that IBP isn't the only SEO solution we used in our testing, and it's unlikely to be the only tool you'll need in your search engine optimization efforts. As with investments, the most efficient means to ensure success is to diversify your efforts.
There are literally thousands of SEO resources out there; take advantage of them, but do so with a cautious eye, since quite a few promote borderline to heavily-frowned optimization tactics that can penalize your site's rankings. We recommend consulting with a reputable resource like Search Engine Watch when getting started with SEO before really branching out into the mysterious and often treacherous world of search engine optimization.
One last note: Competition in the SEO sector is fierce, and unsurprisingly, IBP isn't the only Web promotion suite out there. The comparably priced SEO Toolkit v2 from Trellian and the slightly less expensive Web CEO Suite are two of the more popular competitors to Internet Business Promoter. Look for reviews of each of these suites on WinPlanet in the near future.
Pros: Extensive feature-set for helping you find search engine optimization success; well designed interface that's easy to understand and use; comprehensive solution for SEO efforts, Web site promotion, and search engine results tracking
Cons: Hefty price tag (starts at $249.95) may be a bit too steep for smaller businesses and individual users
