Understanding SEO Tools: Adwords, Wordtracker, Keyword Research, Alexa, Link Analysers

Search Engine Optimization

There are many products in the SEO area that help webmasters and marketing departments in making changes to web sites and pages so that they are ranked higher in search results. This blog post gets under the skin of some of these to explore what makes them tick.

Keyword Research

1. Tools to find search frequency of keywords

Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Google provides an interface to find frequency of searches made on a particular keyword and related keyword terms. Google can provide such a tool because what keywords are used for searches is already known to the search engine. This tool has been provided as part of the Adwords package which allows advertisers to display their PPC ads in google. But it can be used by anyone.

WordTracker
WordTracker associates with the dogpile / metacrawler meta-search-engines (i.e. those which combine the results from google + yahoo + bing etc.). It collects search terms people use to find the latest keywords being used. It counts the number of times each individual word or phrase is used and uses this information as a basis for each keyword’s traffic. Using this, users can build lists of promising keywords for their sites.

2. Tools to find useful keywords

Webmaster Toolkit: Keyword Research Tool
This tool finds keywords related to the word or phrase you supply. It asks for the selection of a search engine and returns a list of alternate or related terms. It seems to do this by executing the search on the selected search engine and then parsing the meta tags of the results to provide a list of alternate keywords. Since it does this for the top matches, it is likely to come up with a good set of related keywords.

Keyword Analysis

Most of the popular tools in this category accept a url and identify all the unique, non-common words and key phrases on the page and display a frequency table for them. The advantage of this tool is that it shows what the search engine sees and helps modify the copy for the web page so that it has a richer set of keywords.

Search Engine Submission

The tools in this category have some manual steps involved. Typically, this is due to the captcha element on the page. Most tools work with specific search engines and will navigate the user to the submission page and from that point on the submission process is manual. In the case of certain search engines, the submission process can be completely automated.

Site Popularity Ratings

Alexa
A browser toolbar was made available to internet users which kept suggested related sites and at the same time sent site browsing information to a server which collected data about user browsing habits. This system provides site popularity ratings based on the data collected.

Link Partners

Inbound Link Analysers
I'm not sure how these work, but they must be working on the assumption of reciprocal links and links from directories.

Link Popularity Analysers
These mainly look to make sure that the existing incoming links to the site are not broken.

Site Directory Submissions
These are again like search engine submission tools. Where possible, they will automate the process. Otherwise, they will navigate the user to each directory where the submission can be done manually.

Long Tail of Casting Aspiring Actors, Singers

The Long Tail

The long tail phenomenon denotes the idea that there are a few "hits" and a disproportionately large number of non-hits. This had first been pointed out in music sales - conventional thinking states that 80% of sales come from 20% of the albums. But for an online vendor it was noticed that almost half of the sales came from a very large number of non-hits.

Entertainment Talent

Entertainment talent has an identical pattern. There are a minuscule number of "super stars" who are loaded with offers, followed by a few B-grade stars and then there is a huge number of artistes who are essentially unrecognized - from minor supporting roles to completely fresh aspirants looking for a break.

The plight of the unrecognized aspirants is very similar to the plight of a music CD published by an unknown band. They are both invisible. The CD is invisible because no music store wants to store it because of its low sale potential. And the unrecognized artist is invisible for the same reason - she has no way to project her visibility to those who matter.

Presently, the only way for an actor to be noticed by the casting people is to follow the long winded route of connections which may or may not result in a break. In fact, for most people, a huge effort is expended in getting the break which finally doesnt pay off.

An Inefficient Market

This happens because there is no convenient marketplace in which to trade the acting potential of the artistes. There is no convenient way for a casting director to review all the talent available and pick the ones he likes. Also there is no convenient mechanism for an aspiring artiste to know what opportunities exist. And the only way is through middlemen who bridge this gap between those who want talent and those who have it.

The Online Market

The internet provides an opportunity for a marketplace for entertainment talent. Consider a web site that allows unrecognized artistes to register themselves as members (like on facebook) and upload their portfolios. Models could upload photographs representing their portfolios; actors could upload video clips; and music artistes could upload soundtracks or videos. Scriptwriters could put up some of their script outlines; camera workers could put up samples of their work and so on.

There is no limit on how much content is uploaded. So, every artiste gets a chance to showcase himself or herself. The internet and all the current digital technologies provide a convenient medium for this market.

The Challenges

Having said that, the problem is not completely solved. In fact a new problem arises due to the showcasing of this vast pool of talent. There is so much information, that it is difficult to sift and sort through the pool and find the right artistes.

For example, if 3000 artistes meet the criteria of female aged between 21 and 26 years, it is going to be difficult to go through all the portfolios and come up with the right choice. But that is the situation.

The Solutions

The first solution is a high quality search function. A search function that will be able to go through the background of each artiste and find relevant experience. For example, if the role is that of a young female TV journalist, the relevant experience may be that of a journalist, or that of a fighter for a social cause, etc. It would eliminate those who have played parts in soap operas or those in comic roles. This should reduce the search to a few relevant artistes from which the calls for auditions can be made.

Another solution is user ratings. If the people who employ the talents of an artiste are persuaded to give their ratings for artistes, then these become recommendations and help selectors to make their choice. Those artistes with lots of good recommendations get better offers and generally make their way up in life. But there are many selectors who are willing to work with fresh and cheap talent, so opportunities exist for the entire spectrum.

Other Benefits

Apart from cast selectors being able to find talent easily, there are other benefits and new markets. There is scope for an acting academy to promote their services and for actors with experience to teach in such academies.

This platform provides the potential for making new contacts in the same field; for exchanging notes; forming groups and exchanging views on common topics of interest, to pick up new techniques and share one's own expertise with others.