Conductor - Saves time for a small team
October 05, 2015
Conductor - Saves time for a small team
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
3 Domains, 10 Comparison Domains, 2500 Keywords
Modules Used
- Analytics integration, content insights, content mapping, universal search tracking, youtube channel insights, opportunities, pipeline
Overall Satisfaction with Conductor Searchlight
Primarily, I am the only user. I do however, use the dashboarding tools to produce reports that are shared with other people in the marketing department, including content creators, and also with the executive team. We bought Conductor to help us to prioritize our search engine optimization efforts and have a seamless way to track and measure the success or failure of our optimization tactics. We did this so that we could take the optimization tasks in house, tie it more closely to content creation, and also eliminate the need for an agency partnership.
- Reporting on status over time of particular keywords. This is their core competency so it is no surprise that they do it well. It is incredibly simple to build out groups of keywords, conduct optimization experiments and track the success or failure of your efforts over a longer range of time.
- Providing insight into the competitive landscape. At any moment, I can see how my competitors are for a particular keyword and how we stack up as well as pulling in information about their page meta information alongside my own.
- Tying search engine ranking to more typical measurements such as revenue, event tracking on a website etc. With the analytics integration you can get very granular in how you want to measure the success of your search engine optimization projects beyond just where you appear in a single generic Google search.
- Mobile reporting - You can (with associated fees) see exactly where you (and your competition) rank for specific keywords from mobile devices from specific locations. Very valuable to know how your efforts are impacting not only local to our business searches, but also those in places that are further away. As an international distributor, but with only a single storefront, this is particularly powerful.
- Keeping notes and information on the tests and techniques that you've employed can be a bit cumbersome. They have been working on streamlining this. There ARE ways to keep all of your notes and info right in the platform, it just isn't always within a single click from where you are in the platform.
- Automation of tasks isn't really a priority. I wish there were some ways to automate outbound link requests from within the platform. There are tools to pull this data up and make it visible and if it was then tied in with WhoIs data to pull a technical email contact, that would be super awesome and timesaving.
- Some of the content segmentation tools aren't very intuitive. They take some getting used to. However, the good news is that the help documentation is available a single click from anywhere in the platform and there are lots of training resources. it just takes a bit of time to get up to speed.
- Conductor has greatly improved and decreased the amount of time we have to spend on reporting on search engine optimization tasks and results. We now spend 5 hours a week working directly in this tool and that includes prioritizing tasks, doing reporting, monitoring competition, and reaching out for backlinks.
- We have successfully moved our average search rank position across all tracked keywords from a 12 to a 9 in the last 12 months.
We never used a product before, but we did have an agency that monitored this for us and reported to us on status. It was cumbersome. They only checked our rankings once a quarter so we couldn't make decisions or changes fast enough. We chose Conductor because the tool was really easy to get up to speed on, they showed us a full demo with our own data, and we could easily see that we would be able to do the work of that agency without issue.
Conductor Feature Ratings
Using Conductor Searchlight
1 - Only I use Conductor but about six others review reports regularly.
1 - I'm a marketer by trade, I do have some technical knowledge as well, but I think that really anyone could learn to use the tool effectively.
- Reviewing and monitoring our position on our main .com domain.
- Using the tool to expand and build up a new domain that we have that is focused on video. YouTube analytics is great for this.
- We use the tool extensively for an outbound link building campaign.
- We were able to find some high priority problems with the structure and underlying foundation of our site and resolve them.
- I want to get more into tying search ranking and position with content insights and also with Adobe Analytics.
Conductor Searchlight Implementation
Change management was minimal
- I needed to review the keywords that were mined and added by the vendor to make sure they were aligned with business objectives. This wasn't an issue per se, but was the part where we had the most time internally.
Conductor Searchlight Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Not Sure
I've never needed it. I have no idea if they have such a charge or not, but I've been supported excellently just for the price of my package.
Yes - Yes, I had an issue with one of my screens not displaying properly, some of the data was misaligned. I sent a screenshot and by the next morning when I logged in it was resolved.
I've only needed support a couple of times and both were great experiences. I upgraded my account once since I've been a customer, adding additional domains, additional modules and additional keywords. I was having some issues accessing one of the modules that I'd added and reported it. Within an hour, they had the issue resolved. I've NEVER had to reach out or inquire about the status on a ticket and I consider that exceptional in this day and age.
Using Conductor Searchlight
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Looking at your pipeline, how your keywords are ranked is so incredibly easy.
- Super easy to see and review any recommendations for your site.
- Setting up the content segments is a bit cumbersome. For some sites figuring out how to segment is also challenging depending on how your URL's are structured.