This one’s pretty redundant if you ask me.  

Scheduler Enhancements

1) Easier Interface

Well - here’s thing. WPG claim that Scheduler interface in WPG v2.0 is easier to use. But I don’t think so. Sure tabbed layout is consistent with other WPG features, but I don’t find interface any more intuitive. In fact, Scheduler v2.0 kept trying to run using an older version of WPG. After I worked out what problem was, I had to keep changing execute file in 'Program to Run' field to WPG v2.0 BETA. There doesn’t appear to be a way to choose a default program to run, unless you remove older WPG versions from your system or move them to a new folder.

2) System Tray Support  

A nice enhancement to Scheduler in v2.0 is addition of an icon in your system tray, meaning you can right click icon at any time to run Scheduler. Previously, unless you had Scheduler as a desktop shortcut, you had to open WPG and select Scheduler when you wanted to run it.

3) New Report Log   In WPG v2.0, a log file now records details of all scheduled events so you can open it and see which missions completed and which did not. A 'View Log' button has been added to Scheduler so you can see this file at any time.   4) Scheduled Uploads Supported  

WPG v2.0 now supports scheduling of Upload Manager missions in addition to Reporter and Submitter missions. So now you can schedule what time and what day you want your report files uploaded to Internet.   5) More Flexibility  

In v2.0, Scheduler includes a lot more flexibility when running missions. Now you can choose specific dates, times and/or recurring dates via a drop down list, such as every second Friday or quarterly. This is useful for my clients, because some of them like to present ranking reports at specific management meetings and often those meetings will be held at regular intervals such as third Wednesday of month. This new feature gives me ability to run and upload their reports to coincide with such meetings. 6) Easier Submission Handling  

A feature of Scheduler I’m not likely to use is submission handling. WPG v2.0 allows submission of URL’s at more defined intervals, supposedly keeping within search engine recommended per-day submission limits. However, one check box option I noticed and that caused me some concern was 'Allow Repetitive Submissions'. The explanation states:

'Once all URL’s are submitted, highlight them so that they can be re-submitted on next scheduled run'.

I’ve got to ask - why on earth would you want to regularly resubmit a URL to any search engine? If your site is linked to from other sites, most search engines will find your site on their own when they crawl web. Once you’re listed, most search engines will regularly return and spider your site for new content without any help from you. Other search engines can take months to add your URL to their index, but submitting once is enough. Depending on your site content, some search engines won’t add you at all.

Regardless, submitting on a regular basis is only going to annoy search engines and possibly get your URL banned. The only reason to resubmit is if you WERE listed and later find your listing has disappeared. Resubmitting a URL in hope of improving your ranking is just silly. If your page doesn’t get ranked well first time it gets listed in a search engine, resubmitting same page is not going to make it suddenly rank high! This submission 'enhancement' to WPG raises concern because it is open to abuse by giving people ability to resubmit their URL’s daily. This is an irresponsible and unnecessary addition to software if you ask me.

7) Handy Pop Up Calendar  

The WPG v2.0 Scheduler now includes a pop-up calendar to assist selection of scheduled dates on which to run missions. This is particularly useful for those of us running multiple missions per month. 8) Quickly Test Your Scheduled Events  

If you wanted to schedule a mission to run immediately in old version of WPG, you still had to select a future time for mission to commence. WPG v2.0 of Scheduler includes a 'Run Now' button that allows you to run any scheduled missions immediately.  

Well, that completes my review of WebPosition Gold v2.0 BETA. Keep in mind that program is still in BETA release, so items discussed above may change before full version is released. All in all, I’ve found new version to be very impressive, with plenty of worthwhile features justifying cost of an upgrade (USD 74 for Standard version and USD 174 for Pro) or a new purchase (USD 149 for Standard version and USD 349 for Pro). However, some of features provided are quite powerful and open to abuse.

If you choose to use WebPosition Gold or similar software, try to use it responsibly by scheduling your Reporter missions sporadically, not over-submitting your URL’s, avoiding creation of hundreds of content-challenged doorway pages and not running Reporter on engines known for taking an anti-querying software stand (such as Google). Because despite hype, bombarding search engines is NOT going to help you achieve high rankings.

President of FirstPlace Software, Brent Winters, responded to my review with comments addressing some of concerns I raise above. You can read Brent's comments via this link: http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/Response_to_WPG_v2.0_Review.htm If you have additional questions about WebPosition Gold as a result of reading this review, please visit links below, or email WebPosition support staff via help@webposition.com. If you’d like to trial Beta version of WPG v2.0 please download it from link below. 

More: http://www.webposition.com/d2.pl?r=GCU-55EC (our affiliate link) http://www.webposition.com/wpg2upgrade.htm (outline of features in v2.0)

Although I can’t verify if search engines are less likely to detect you if you use this option, I can tell you it results in fewer time-outs and dial up disconnections, something that would plague my use of previous WPG versions. I now use this option by default because of its ability to stabilize missions. Regardless, given Google’s extremely strong stance against automated software, I strongly recommend you do not include Google in any ranking missions you perform. In past, Google has banned IP addresses of heavy users of such software. Instead, do what I do and select Yahoo Pages instead. This will reveal your positions in Web Page Matches of Yahoo, fed by Google, which is a fairly accurate representation how you rank on Google anyway.

3) Auto-Email Reports  

Another handy function of WPG v2.0 (Pro Version) is ability to automatically email generated reports. When setting up your Reporter missions, you can choose to have Concise Report (with or without Visibility Statistics) sent to one or more email addresses as soon as report is complete. The site URL is automatically included in email body and you can even set up your own email template - a very nice feature if you are emailing clients their reports on a regular basis. Even if you prefer to publish reports to a web site, now you can optionally auto email them to your clients as well. This, combined with Scheduling tool, means once you set up your Reporter missions you can simply press a button and let program do rest.

4) Auto-Upload Reports  

A new feature of Pro Version gives you ability to upload your ranking reports to a specific web site via FTP. The Upload Manager can either use WPG’s built-in FTP program or your own preferred FTP tool to upload files. WPG recommends FrontPage users should use FrontPage to upload files instead, to avoid common occurrence of FTP programs corrupting FrontPage server extensions. Yet another time-saving enhancement, this particular feature is ideal for SEO’s servicing multiple clients or people monitoring various web sites. It took me about 10 minutes to upload latest WPG reports to five of my client’s sites; something that would normally take me about 15 minutes per client. Consequently, I would have to say this is one of my favourite features of WPG v2.0 BETA.   5) Filter Non-Ranking Keywords

A feature I understand demand for but wouldn’t use very often is ability to filter out non-ranking keywords from Reporter Missions. This enables you to email or publish ranking reports that only contain positive results (i.e. keywords that did not rank within your position search range can be excluded). Personally, I think this 'enhancement' opens up program to abuse because it encourages circulation of misleading reports and distorts true performance of a search ranking campaign. If some search terms did not perform as well as others, in my opinion, clients should be aware of this so they can make decisions about which keywords to target in future and about success of campaign in general. Keep in mind that if you remove non-ranking keywords from a report, your visibility percentage will always be 100%. This figure is therefore no longer meaningful and will be automatically removed from report.

6) Auto-Import Keywords  

Tired of cutting and pasting your keywords from your web site’s META keyword tag into Reporter? Well soon you won’t have to. The full release of WPG v2.0 will include a button that does this for you automatically. WPG v2.0 BETA does not yet include this function, just a note that 'this feature is currently in development' and will be available in a future update.

7) New Visibility Report

Another 'how did we ever do without it' feature is new Visibility Statistics table which appears above each ranking report in WPG v2.0 BETA. Now you can see, at a glance, how many top 30, top 20, top 10, top 5 and position 1 ranks you achieved, instead of having to manually count them. 8) Better Rank Tracking  

The Visibility Report also tells you (or your client) how many positions you moved up or down since you last ran report, your overall ranking gain or loss and it even provides an approximate visibility score for your campaign based on your existing search positions. For SEO’s or persons managing campaigns for multiple clients, this enhancement is a real gem, turning a seemingly complex report into an easy to read search performance indicator.

9) Greater Report Customization (Pro Version Only)  

While users of older WPG versions could customize their reports by adding a logo and URL, WPG v2.0 allows you to customize layout and colours of your reports as well. Using a drop down list of colour choices for each report area, you can change look of your reports to match your company stationery, your client’s logo or your mood. The only annoying part of this feature is that there are no previews available of your colour choices. You need to run a report in order to see how it’s going to look. In future releases, it would be nice to see a thumbnail preview of how your chosen colours will look in a report layout, or even better, to have a range of colour templates available for selection. As well as changing colour scheme, you can change layout by creating your own custom template. You do this by altering header and footer to include logos, URL’s, text and email addresses. This is another handy feature for persons preparing reports on behalf of multiple clients.