Most SEO analysts continue to use Wordtracker as their main source for keyword analysis and considering being able to have the closest match to what your target market is searching for is soo important, having the most accurate keyword analysis is critical to being able to provide the best results. Wordtracker Keyword Analysis software has been around for quite some time now and is what most SEO analyst use as their primary choice for SEO but Wordtracker has a lot of limitations.

First, Wordtracker is very slow and cumbersome. You have to go through several processes that each require an annoying wait for the information to display before you can move onto the next predetermined step.

Keyword Discovery’s process is very simple and yields more keyword information such as keyword trending, dataset selection, language translation and more. You can navigate through the software just like a website and they even offer tools that you can load onto your desktop. I personally don’t have it because of the $price…

Second, Wordtracker pulls from a very small dataset in comparison to the actual population. Their database is comprised of nearly 200 million searches over the last 90 days. Considering the actual population is probably close to 100 billion searches a month, 200 million is very small which means the margin for error is much higher than Keyword Discovery.

Keyword Discovery’s dataset is nearly 26 billion search queries collected over the past year. Because their dataset is closer to the actual population, it means there is less margin for error. It is going to be a more accurate depiction of how people are searching and will provide more variations allowing you to find the niche phrases that are going to yield the best results.

Third, the setup and process flow of the analysis limits what you can do with the data. There is a predefined process that makes you go through step 1 then to step 2 and so one which limits what control you have over the process. Keyword discovery works more like a website in which you can navigate back and forth and from project to project, and from areas of the process to other areas which allows you to completed additional trending analysis to eliminate any keywords that are seasonally out.

Fourth, If you have ever tried geographic targeting in Wordtracker you can forget about it. Because Wordtracker’s dataset is so small and only comes from 2 search engines it is very limited and often returns zero results for geographic targeting which is often a huge factor for most smaller SEO clients and even for us SEO Analyst.

Keyword Discovery is very good at Geographic targeting which is one of the best attributes for the software in my opinion. I have multiple clients who need to focus on their specific areas and if their competitors are using Wordtracker, I have a competitive advantage over them and can more accurately target the market.

Now that I have beat up Wordtracker enough, I do want to say that Wordtracker isn’t all bad, it did serve me well for the first couple of years and may still be a viable tool for some people that don’t need the accuracy and level of analysis that I prefer. To create the simplest analogy that most of you would understand, it’s like comparing Dreamweaver to Frontpage…

As I get more and more technical in my capabilities I find that Search Engine Optimization really comes down to one very important factor; Site Architecture. The way that a site is initially developed will directly impact the ability the site has to be search engine friendly. There are a lot of developers out there who can build perfectly functional sites that accomplish the task the programming and development were meant to accomplish. But that does not matter much if nobody can find your site.

There are also many search engine analyst who can tell you all day long what you need to do and can be very accurate with what they are recommending. But what good does this do if the site’s structure is developed so SEO unfriendly you have to redesign the site in order to be effective. What I mean by this is if the site has been developed to be in iframes, has a dynamic URL structure and multiple redirects which will make it nearly impossible without a redevelopment to correct.

If you are getting ready to start development and want to be sure that your site is built right from the ground up you want to be sure to consult with a Search Engine Site Architect. An SEO Architect will be involved through the process of development and will consult with the developers along the way to ensure that your site is perfectly SEO friendly. This will allow the nice functionality that your company and developers have spent so much time and money on to be found by your target market.

There are multiple factors such as the folder structure, folder names, navigation, footer, contact pages, file placement, file name, internal link structure, URL structure, and many other variables that play a critical role in making a Search Engine Friendly site. When you are building a new site you need to make sure that you have an experienced SEO Architect to give you guidance and to even help code the site so that you don’t get stuck like so many companies out there who spend thousands of dollars on a new site, then thousands more on Search Engine Optimization Company to only find out they are going to have to restructure or redevelop their site.

What can you take away from this article? Never just assume that your developers know how to build an SEO friendly site. They can build beautiful sites that are full of functionality but without the years of experience analyzing code from a search engine’s viewpoint they just aren’t going to know everything and it could cost you in the long run. Invest in a Search Engine site Architect and you will be glad you did.

I have just encountered an interesting way that might make iframes or page frames more search engine friendly. Previously SEO specialist have avoided frames like the plague but I have a client who couldn’t get rid of the frames in time for the launch date so he created a Javascript code that once the iframe page itself is accessed by a user it automatically reloads the page with the iframe placed inside the parent frame. Yes, I said he created the code… I will take all the Javascript coding help I can get. What this does is allow the actual iframe to be optimized in terms of Page Titles, keywords, and other SEO tactics. When a search engine spider views the page it will index the information or keyword rich copy in the frame.

Now begs the obvious question… “How will these iframe pages rank well?” To answer that question we shift our attention and SEO efforts from the parent pages down to the iframe pages. If those are the pages that need to have the credibility we must tie those pages into the navigation. In your entire navigation switch the link from going to the “parent” frame page and have it link directly to the iframe insertion page. Don’t worry, when your visitors follow your navigation they won’t go to a page that is just a part of the overall page. Remember you have inserted the Javascript that displays the full page, with both frames.

Now that all the links including the sitemap have been adjusted to point to the iframe page instead of the parent pages that holds the navigation, footer, and other graphics those pages will get the brunt of the Page Rank distribution allowing for the credibility necessary to rank well.

My clients new site will be launching within the next couple of days so we will be able to see how well this works. I will keep you guys posted and let you know my findings. If you have any previous experience with this or have accomplished another method of making iframes SEO friendly please let us know because we would love to have that information.

Thanks, Brad Henry – SEO Analyst.

What exactly is ethical search engine optimization? It is the practice of using only techniques that would not be considered shady from a search engines viewpoint. Anything that is done specifically for the search engines in order to gain an advantage over your competitors can be considered unethical. When considering implementing a new SEO strategy you will have a gut feeling about whether or not what you are doing is specifically for a search engine or whether it is to provide the best content to the right audience. It is actually similar to your conscience in that you can just tell whether it is “right” or “wrong” in a sense. If you feel like it could be viewed as being black hat it probably could be. Are there any grey areas? Of course there are but you will learn how to make those calls with experience as you work with clients and see what is successful and what does not work.

An interesting technique I have recently discovered is the scrolling div used in a manner that displays data on the source code without actually displaying the data in the browser. Is this a grey area or this just black? Probably just black but I will tell you what I am talking about so you can decide.

You can place the scrolling div with absolute positioning in the source code at the top of the page with good relevant content that is very keyword rich. You use the absolute positioning to place the actual div on the bottom of the content in the browser. If you give the scrolling div a height of 32 pixels it removes the scrollbar on the right hand side to make it invisible. Then if you space the top of the text not to start for close to 35 pixels either through padding, spacing, margins, or the skip line code the div will push the visible text into the overflow which can be accessed on the page by scrolling which should be SEO friendly. Now, the “grey” or black part… Because we gave it a height of only 32 pixels, the scrollbar isn’t visible meaning it appears that there is absolutely nothing on the page unless you put your mouse over the div and scroll with it.

Can this be picked up by a search engine? The search engines would definitely be able to read the text and it would appear to have large significance due to the placement in the source code. The tricky part is to determine whether or not a search engine is smart enough to put all the factors together and determine that the text is not visible. Can they do that? I have not specifically tried this technique yet because I try to avoid areas that can be potentially black hat but I would love to hear if anyone else has “gotten away” with this technique. Chances are you probably could but you can definitely get the sense that this is a grey area. I might be willing to try it with a personal site but not a client’s site just yet.

Ok, everyone knows that there are tons of factors that go into gaining positioning in the search engine results pages. None of these factors are going to be effective without the two most important factors being in place. Those two factors are Credibility and Relativity. In short, Credibilty can be defined by your Page Rank in comparison to how competitive the industries top 10 average Page Rank is. The second biggest factor is Relativity. This is when your body copy and what your page actually speaks to relates to the industry and what the visitor may be searching for. If you don’t have these two, it doesn’t matter what else you try because it won’t be nearly as effective with either of these two missing…