Advanced Web Ranking User Guide

Chapter 11. Custom Reports

Custom Reports are, next to interactive views, some of the most powerful features of Advanced Web Ranking. They allow you to unleash a flurry of customizable functionality upon the gathered data and thus create a report tailored to your exact requirements.

Creating Custom Reports

You can create a new "Custom Report Template" by clicking on this icon from the toolbar, or by selecting the [Edit Reports]->[New Report] menu.

You also can see a list of all available reports, so you can edit them. Click on one of these reports to see the report.

In the "Report type" tab you can specify the following report settings:

  • Report Type. 

    These are the report types: Current Rank, Search Engine Rank, Keyword Rank, Top Sites, and Overview report.

  • File Format. 

    Specifies what format could be used to encode the file when saving to disk or emailing the report.

  • Date. 

    Specifies the day whose data will be used to generate the report; this option is disabled for the Top Sites report since the data contained in this report is kept only for the day the last update was made.

  • Filters. 

    Specifies a criteria by which to filter the data contained in the Current Rank, Search Engine Rank, Keyword Rank and Overview, reports.

  • Report Title. 

    This is the title that appears at the top of the reports, and it also appears as the subject of the email, when you receive a report by email. You can customize the report title by changing this field.

  • Header and Footer template. 

    You can choose to add custom header and footer to your report by selecting the template from the drop-down list. If none is available, you can create one or edit the selected one by pressing the [Edit...] button. Read more about Header and footer.

  • Show all columns in report (only for Current Rank reports). 

    If you wish to show only some of the columns from the Current Rank report just uncheck this option and press [Select Columns].

  • Highlight data. 

    If this preference is checked you can select wich items will be highlighted in your reports.

  • Show changes compared to a previous day. 

    When this setting is enabled, you can select the day you wish to compare the current results with from the drop-down list. The differences between the selected days (the report day and the previous day) are displayed to the right of the current position in the report.

  • Color URL/Keywords in reports. 

    If this preference is checked the URLs and Keywords are shown with their specified color.

  • Insert rank evolution charts in reports. 

    If this preference is checked the charts are inserted in the reports on a separate page, after the table with the actual data. You can customize the Rank Evolution Charts that will appear in your reports by setting the Position Range and the Date Range.

  • Date Range. 

    This report allows you to choose a time range for the data that is displayed in the chart. There are 7 choices available:

    • All Data

    • Last week

    • Last month

    • Last three months

    • Last six months

    • Last year

    • Custom range - can be set from the Time Range dialog box.

  • Position Range. 

    For this report you can also choose the Position Range for the data that is displayed in the chart. There are 7 choices available:

    • All Data

    • 1 to 10

    • 1 to 20

    • 1 to 30

    • 1 to 40

    • 1 to 50

    • 1 to 100

    • Custom Range - can be set from the Position Range dialog box.

  • Show chart legend. 

    If the chart is displayed, and color URLs is enabled, you have the option of removing the chart legend, since the URL colors are already displayed in the report table. This option is useful in case your URL list is too big, and uses too much space from the chart.

  • Show only charts in report. 

    If this option is enabled, the Current Rank, Search Engine Rank and Keyword Rank reports will contain only the charts. This option can be enabled only if the "Insert rank evolution charts in report" option is checked.

  • Show Legend. 

    By enabling this option, your HTML and PDF reports will also contain a legend that will point to the meaning of all the icons displayed

  • Show number of results for each search query (competition). 

    If this preference is checked your Keywords are shown with the number of results returned by the search engine for that specific keyword.

  • Sort order. 

    You can choose to have your reports ordered by search engine or by keywords. The search engines, URLs and keywords can be sorted in 3 ways: ascending, descending or as specified in the Project Settings dialog box.

  • Visibility (only for Overview Report). 

    If this preference is checked the visibility table of your URLs will be shown in the report.

  • Hide report data (only for Overview Report). 

    If this preference is checked the data in your Overview report will be hidden, while only the visibility tables will be shown.

In the "Destination" tab you can specify the following report settings:

  • Destination settings for: 

    With the help of this option you can choose the destination of the generated report to which the desired settings will be applied. The following destinations are available:

    • Local folder - the report will be saved in the default destination folder of your project.

    • Email - the report will be sent by email to the selected email address, but only after enabling the "Send report by email" option.

    • FTP - the report will be uploaded to a FTP server, but only after enabling the "Upload report to ftp server" option and creating/choosing a FTP profile.

  • Save Report to File. 

    Check this option and specify the folder where you wish to save the report to.

    When you generate a printable report, you can assign one of the following names to it:

    • a default name which has the following form:

      [Report type] - [Project name] - [Date]

    • a custom name to which you can optionally append the current date

    [Note]Note

    The date will be appended to the custom name at the time the report is generated.

  • Create separate folders for project name, year and month. 

    By enabling this option you can choose to have your reports saved under different folders, depending on their types. You will thus have the following types of sub-folders under the /reports/ folder: Current Rank, Search Engine Rank, Keyword Rank, Top Sites and Overview. The current date will also be assigned to each report, so that you can easily find them when needed.

  • Preview. 

    Use this button to preview the report with the current settings.

  • Generate. 

    This button is enabled when the "Save Report to File" option from the Destination tab is selected.

    This action also becomes available when you choose to send an email report to one or more valid email addresses (from the address book). Use this button to generate the report with the current settings.

  • Generate this report after each update. 

    This checkbox allows you to generate this report automaticaly after each update.

You can directly access and manage (add/edit) the e-mail addresses from your AddressBook.

You can filter the Search Engines, Keywords and URLs by adding a text to the filter edit box. The list will then display only the matching names. If you no longer wish to apply the filter just click on the "Clear Filter" button next to the edit box.

The "Search Engines" tab of the "Custom Report" dialog allows you to specify the search engines that you want to include in the report. Correspondingly check or uncheck the checkmark next to a search engine in order to include or exclude it from the report.

The text area contains all the search engines from the Project Settings.

  • Deselect all. 

    Deselects all the search engines.

  • Include all Search Engines. 

    If checked, it includes all the search engines in the report.

The "Keywords" tab allows you to specify the keywords you want included in the report.

The text area contains all the keywords (active or inactive) from your project.

  • Deselect all. 

    Deselects all the keywords included in your project.

  • Include all Keywords. 

    If checked, it includes all the keywords in the report

The "URLs" tab allows you to specify the URLs you want included in the report.

The text area contains all the URLs you want to rank.

  • Deselect all. 

    Deselects all the URLs.

  • Include all URLs. 

    You need to check that in order to rank all the URLs from the project.