The Raven team of developers won me over right away just with their slogan. Why are they called Raven? Because they’re “smart, social toolmakers, just like the real birds.” This interesting group has created Raven Tools, a collection of web development tools. But are these tools a smart choice, or is the whole idea just a bit too bird-brained?

About Raven Tools

Raven Tools began with a focus on SEO, but over the years has expanded. Today, Raven Tools still handles SEO, but it also can help with social media, Pay Per Click, marketing and more. There are lots of toolkits out there which claim to do the same things. Raven Tools stands out because of its flexibility, its ease of use and its excellence in automating and streamlining routine actions.

Top Features of Raven Tools

Raven offers over 30 individual tools that help with virtually every facet of running and promoting a website. These tools are designed from the beginning to work perfectly with one another. So, even though you might find similar tools out there, nothing is going to be as seamless as the complete Raven Tool set. Rather than going over every tool individually, let’s group the tools together and take a look at the overall picture.

The Raven toolkit contains:

SEO Tools – There will always be a need for an SEO expert to comb through the details and make decisions. But that doesn’t mean your expert needs to waste his or her time on a bunch of mundane activities. Raven Tools can help you:

Social Media Tools – No program can’t write interesting Facebook posts or otherwise engage your audience in the world of social media. What Raven Tools can do, however, is track metrics which show the influence your social media has on your site. This can not only help prove the value of social media work, it can also help you refine your social media presence to make it as effective as possible.

Content Marketing Tools – It’s an interesting dichotomy: your content needs to have enough keywords so it’ll be attractive to the search engines, but it also has to read well enough to be attractive to the search engines. Raven Tools can provide an SEO analysis of your content, and help you appeal to both humans and bots.

Plus, you can also order custom articles from the Raven team. They’ll arrive ready to be published on WordPress.

PPC Tools – Utilize Pay Per Click without breaking the bank. Raven Tools automates Google AdWords campaign research, management and reports. The Tools can also save you money. They can spot quality and page latency problems.

Marketing Reports – Clients like to see lots of reports, and there’s really nothing wrong with that. Especially if the reports are automatically generated by Raven Tools. Plus, you can never move forward unless you know where you now. You name the metrics, and the chances are good Raven Tools will be able to create a report of it for you.

Other Services:

I’ve heard of Raven Tools before, but even I was surprised to discover all this additional stuff you get when you sign up.

Custom Branding – You’ve worked hard on your brand, your logo – your entire image. You can now add that image to all of your accounts and reports. When you deliver reports to your client, you can be assured those reports look like they’re coming from you, not Raven Tools.

Campaign Management – One Raven account lets you manage unlimited websites and social networks. You’re in charge, and can organize campaigns and access rights however you like.

Team Collaboration – Work globally. Everyone has access to the same real-time data. Message and task tools promote quick, easy communication.

Google Integrations – Raven Tools automatically integrates Analytics, AdWords and Webmaster Tools, which makes one-stop management and reporting.

Business Development – Raven’s Research Central, Site Performance and CRM tools make is easy to create a comprehensive proposal guaranteed to impress potential clients.

Raven Tools Prices

There are two price plans for Raven Tools. Both plans are free for the first 30 days. You sign up – no credit card is required – and use the Tools as much as you’d like. When the 30 day trial is up, you’re given the option to either quit or subscribe.

This method seems great to me. I prefer to see some of the long range tools in actions, such as reports generated over a month, before I have to make a decision about the entire product.

The two subscription plans are:

Criticism of Raven Tools

There’s not a lot of criticism out there. Raven Tools is pretty well regarded in the industry, and people tend to take notice whenever they introduce something new. Speaking of, Raven has a very strong social media presence. You can engage them on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Also, if you’re looking for some tips as to how to conduct your brand online, they’re a great example.

Customer Service

Service is a top priority of Raven Tools. They’re available by phone during weekday working hours, but by email any time. There’s also a recorded demo you can watch, which presents a comprehensive overview of the entire system. Looking for something specific? A huge knowledge base is available on the Raven website.

There are also free, live classes. You can take Raven 101 every Tuesday at 9 am or Wednesday at 11 am, Central Time. This introductory 30 to 45 minutes class covers a wealth of information for Raven newbies. Learn how to set up your account, create a new campaign, use profiles, run your first Site Audit and start collecting date. Classes are followed up with a Q and A session.

Raven 201 picks up where 101 ends. This class, also 30 to 45 minutes long, shows you what to do with the date you’re collecting. You’ll learn about report options, keyword ranking and social stream. Like Raven 101, this class also concludes with a live Question and Answer session. Raven 201 is every week on Tuesday at 10 am, and again on Wednesdays at 3 pm, Central Time.

Looking for even more interactivity? On the third Tuesday of every month Raven presents the Monthly Buildit! Workshop. If you’re in the Nashville, Tennessee, area you should stop by and meet the team. Details are on their website.

Final Thoughts

Raven Tools isn’t for the birds. It’s for anyone who wants to improve their website. While it doesn’t take the place of qualified professionals, it’s not really supposed to. Rather, Raven Tools provides a pack of over 20 tools which can help your team of professionals perform routine actions more efficiently, so they can focus on the more important tasks.

Whether you’re a large organization or a small one, Raven gives you more time to create a better website. Smart and social indeed.