Article printed from SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com
  HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html

Interview with Wordtracker Founder Andy Mindel
by Scott Buresh ©Copyright 2004

Longtime readers of the Medium Blue newsletter know that we 
often make reference to Wordtracker, a powerful keyphrase 
evaluation tool that gives popularity figures for individual 
search terms based upon actual search engine activity. Since the 
keyphrase selection process is the most important step in any 
search engine optimization campaign, we recently interviewed 
Andy Mindel, Wordtracker's founder and president. Andy was 
gracious enough to provide some interesting information about 
the London-based company and the service that it provides.  


MB: Tell us a little bit about your background and the origins 
of Wordtracker. 

AM: We initially entered the search engine positioning field. 
Whilst carrying out some work for ourselves and friends we only 
had access to the Overture suggestion tool. We achieved a number 
of top ten rankings and waited for the traffic to flow. The 
Overture suggestion tool reported hundreds of visitors a day 
from each keyword, so we braced ourselves. Whilst testing we 
realized something must be wrong with the search predictions. We 
were expecting over ten thousand visitors for the week and we 
received about ten. So we carried out our own research and 
utilized a keyword source available on the web at the time. The 
source was taken from metacrawlers and the results we received 
from these engines were very different. We started to use these 
words and found them to be far more accurate. So initially a 
simple tool was created for our own use. We then started to sell 
this tool to other positioning experts, who requested additional 
features. Slowly we integrated all these and created what you 
see today. 

MB: Where exactly does the popularity data in the Wordtracker 
Database come from? 

AM: Popularity data is taken from the largest metacrawlers on 
the web, Dogpile and Metacrawler. After much testing, we found 
that results from these engines were more accurate than other 
sources. We examined keywords from other engines and noticed a 
distortion from position checkers and hard coded queries. One 
thing we notice is that the top keywords always fall into a 
certain pattern - these usually consist of google, hotmail, sex, 
mp3, etc. When this pattern changes then we know something's up- 
and often it's because the engine's database is being used at 
another site (for example gambling or shopping sites).  

MB: For each phrase entered, the Wordtracker database gives 
both a "count" and "predict" number. For those unfamiliar 
with Wordtracker, can you explain exactly what these figures 
represent? 

AM: In a nutshell, the count is the total number of times that 
a keyword has been looked up in the past 60 days using our 350 
million keyword database. This database is the *complete* log 
of all requests made at the Metacrawler/Dogpile Metacrawlers 
(we don't use search engines because of software robots/position 
checkers distorting the results but the lookups are very 
similar). 

The predict column, however, attempts to predict the total 
searches of that keyword in the next 24 hour period for all 
search engines/directories/pay per bids to give you a rough idea 
of whether it's a good choice or not. It utilizes the predicted 
total number of searches made on the net each day (see the first 
article referenced below). Sometimes the count/predict will be 
very similar. This is because the predicted total number of 
daily searches may be the same as our total database size. 

The count is from keywords in our database. This database is 
taken from the major metacrawlers which only get about 2/3% of 
the total search market (this number constantly changes). Using 
the formula above we work out a predict that represents all 
engines on the web. When we work out this number it is often 
much higher than the count, as we are taking into account all 
the searches on the web and not just the major metacrawlers.  

Please look to the following sources for detailed explanations 
of count and predict: 

1) http://www.wordtracker.com/articles, in particular 'How many 
queries are performed on the web each day' which explains how we 
calculate count and predict. 

2) Click on the count/predict columns when you do a search on 
Wordtracker. Or go directly to 
http://www.wordtracker.com/help/counthelp.html 

MB: How has the increased monetization of search changed 
Wordtracker, if at all?  

AM: In our current version we offer the ability to find niches 
within the PPC engines. This will be expanded upon in 
Wordtracker's new release. There is a much greater importance 
placed on these engines and Wordtracker will be catering for 
these needs.  

MB: Do your customers consist primarily of search engine 
optimization experts, or is there a wide mix? 

AM: Our mix has been getting wider and we now cater for 
marketing sites and those just starting out looking for the idea 
and inspiration for a new product. However our predominant base 
is still positioning specialists. 

MB: What are the limitations of the free Wordtracker trial (as 
opposed to the full product)? 

AM: Here is a summary:

The full Wordtracker system returns 300 related words per search 
(and another 300 from the thesaurus) whilst the free trial 
returns 15. The full database returns up to 500 keywords for 
each popularity search. You may also enter any number of your 
own keywords. The free trial returns 15. You can store up to 
5,000 keywords with the full membership. You also clear your 
basket and delete your last keyword. With the free trial you 
can store up to 30 keywords. You can find out how many people 
misspell your chosen keywords (e.g. Altivista, alttavista). This 
feature is not available on the free trial. With the full 
subscription we provide you with a number of different ways to 
search our keyword database - including word stemming (tie, 
ties, tieknot), upper and lower case separation or compression, 
and pluralisation. You also have the option to include or 
exclude adult search terms. The full database allows you five 
projects for each account. They can be implemented as you need 
them, cleared of keywords, renamed or deleted, the choice is 
yours. This option is not available on the free trial. There 
are two reports, the short term top 1000 which shows you data 
from the last 36 hours, and the long term top 1000 which shows 
you data from the last 8 weeks. This allows you to spot trends, 
sudden surges of interest or keywords which stick around 
consistently from day to day. 

MB: What future changes or additions do you anticipate for 
Wordtracker, in the short and long term? 

AM: For the last year and a half we have been working on a new 
and updated Wordtracker. We have rewritten the infrastructure to 
make its workings faster and smoother. We have been receiving 
suggestions over this period from our users, all these will be 
implemented. We are also releasing a webservices side to 
Wordtracker which will allow users to connect to all parts of 
Wordtracker via an API. There have been big changes, far too 
many to list. We are hoping to release Wordtracker in Beta mode 
early next year and then we will implement any other changes and 
suggestions throughout this period. 

MB: Thanks for taking the time for this interview, and good luck 
with the upcoming release. 

AM: No Worries. 

================================================================
Scott Buresh is managing partner of Medium Blue Internet 
Marketing (http://www.mediumblue.com), an Atlanta search engine 
optimization company that works with clients all over North 
America. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, 
including SiteProNews, ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, 
DarwinMag, PromotionData, and Search Engine Guide.  
================================================================

Copyright © 2004 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.