Covario Update:
I have worked with the tool on a fairly limited basis to this point. I do think the purpose of the tool is to help support all SEO efforts within a company, however, I do think it’s more helpful to that in-house person or team that is NOT expert on SEO. Read on for my honest take.
Here’s my list of cons:
Ø There are tools that actually tell you what should be optimized, i.e. “a title tag is essential and you should include one on this page”.
Ø As a full-time SEO/SEM global manager, I have very little time to sit down, login and manually pull out information I already have from my agency to share with those who have to implement.
Ø I don’t like the way its setup into “site sections” this still confuses me to this day. What is a site section you ask? It’s a series of pages, like all product pages, or service pages are classified as different site sections within one domain. Well suppose you have 40 categories and 32 websites? Then hire an in-house SEO expert or two and get to work, but this tool might just slow you down. Your plan is dictated on how many domains and site sections you can have.
Ø While the support is adequate, I don’t find having weekly or bi-weekly meetings about the application to be real helpful. I find the support group very friendly and willing to help, but honestly I always feel as though this tool is not as advanced as I’d like it to be. What I need is an employee who can work directly with the dev team and coordinate priority of recommendations.
All in all it is a basic application that I do feel is a little too pricey for what it does. I realize this is why there is human support from the company, but for my purposes I don’t believe this tool is going to fit within my 2010 budget.
Here are the Pros as I see them:
Ø There is a technical audit, which is actually good for any dev team, I don’t have to tell most SEO experts why any help for your dev team is good, but do feel this would be helpful to both educate them and help with prioritizing recommendations. Most dev teams are really busy and any prioritization will help them.
Ø The Covario team comes up with new features fairly regularly and they do try to listen to their clients’ recommendations. One such example is a feature, I don’t recall its name, but the idea is to be able to answer when one of your internal clients, say an SVP asks “Hey you SEO Mgr, why don’t we appear in Google for the word MP3 Player?” If you are an SEO worth anything you should immediately know why your competition appears there and why you do not. This new feature is supposed to help break down why others show and your site does not.
Great tool if you are very new to SEO and are now tasked with having to lead all SEO efforts.
Final assessment – There are many tools out there, SEOBOOK, Raven, free ones and not so free ones. Many SEO experts have made recommendations on various types of tools.
I think if Covario wanted to make a bigger splash in the SEO Expert/Advanced arena, they should get in front of more of this type of audience, possibly by showing up at an SMX Advanced and encouraging experts in the field to test and provide their reviews and feedback.
As an SEO I can honestly say, you try lots of tools, you look to other experts in the industry and find out what they use and note their reviews. Try it yourself and see what YOU think. It might suit you and your company’s needs. If it does not, you move on and try another.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback.
Janet:
This is Russ Mann, CEO of Covario. Thank you for blogging about your experiences with our team and with our Organic Search Insight (OSI) solution.
As you note and suggest, we do appreciate all feedback, both positive and negative, both public and private, and we attempt to solicit feedback from all types of audiences– especially expert SEOs like you.
It is absolutely true that we have designed Organic Search Insight to meet the needs of a variety of consituents: Corporate executives, global SEO project leads, IT & Web Developers, Interactive agencies and also SEO experts, and that different portions of the solution appeal to the needs of the different users- some parts are more “basic” and some are more “advanced.”
It is also true that it is SEO experts like yourself who are our toughest critics, and who have also helped drive the newest and most cutting-edge features of the software.
Our newest release is called D3 (Data Driven Decisions), and creates an automated prioritzation of recommendations- exactly what you suggested is the next most critical issue to address in the solution- and is a feature that was recommended by top SEOs at other Fortune 500 clients. If you have not been briefed on this part of the solution, we would be glad to do as soon as possible at your convenience.
We are also glad to hear that our PS and Support group has been helpful; although for the more advanced/expert SEO recommendations you seem to be looking for beyond what’s in the solution, we have recently created an SEO Services group, headed by Mike Gullaksen, a well-known expert SEO.
We have found that some clients want not just a SaaS “software-as-a-service” solution, but a “service-as-a-software” solution, where some expert guidance is provided in both natural and paid search optimization alongside the product solution, and we have endeavored to provide that as well with this new group.
Finally, per your recommendations, we will be at SES San Jose this week, where two of our clients of the Organic Seach Insight solution (P&G and Washington Post) are nominated for “most innovative use of SEO” We appear at all of the SES, SMX, Search Insider, AdTech and other conferences as speakers and to further support our clients and to get feedback.
Mike Gullaksen and I will follow up with you privately as well, to make sure we are getting all of your concerns and recommendations, and to hear exactly what else you think the solution needs to make it more valuable.
Thanks again for your feedback, I look forward to speaking with you soon.
-Russ Mann rmann@covario.com
Hey Janet – was wondering how it all worked out? Are you guys going to renew your contract with Covario?
Hi Ryan – Actually, after reviewing the tool and comparing it to what our needs are for reporting, etc – I just don’t see it as something that will really suit our needs. I do still enjoy evaluating other SEO tools and using those that assist in my senior level reporting. Overall, I never really got used to the UI – never really did much for me. Like most software apps – if it’s not easily navigable and doesn’t produce the output necessary, ya gotta look elsewhere.