Last year at the SES conference I asked Greg Jarboe, Katy Howells and other experienced "SEO-PRs" how they collect data - all said they used a mixture of methods, but heavily depended on manual checking.

We think we've just come up with a really strong Web Ranking-based reporting system that we're pleased with - not least because it *should* save us a lot of time. I'm wary of depending on it too much though, as manually looking to see what is happening with your releases is by far the best way to keep up-to-date with search engine behaviour and check on new resources.

We've noticed that when we get a glowing report from a client it's because they've gone to Google and been shocked to find their company's name on page 1! However well we produce a report, it's seeing the results right there on the search engine that really impresses. So back to square one, automated reports and manual searches!