It’s been three years since the first version of The SEO Framework was released. And webmasters who dared to make the switch from other SEO plugins have been very happy so far.

However, there always was one thing missing: Keyword analysis.

N.B. The Focus keywords extension is now available.

Focus on the issues

I have always combatted keyword analysis. I depicted keywords to arise from writing quality content, naturally. I said: “It is fundamentally flawed as a concept”; for example, over the past few years, Google has made great movements in natural language processing, and with that, Google can easily distinguish Apple (the company) from an apple (the fruit) based on context. This is what I’ve discussed with David from WPMUdev, too.

When you perform search queries on Google, you can see the words you’ve used in the query being highlighted throughout the results. Some of those words are synonyms, and it’s very likely you land on pages that don’t even contain any of the words you’ve used in the query. Yet, it was just the page you were looking for.

What I’m trying to convey is that if you use just a single keyword, you’re blinding yourself from the bigger picture. There’s much more to ranking than just using keywords.

But, here we are: People still want to use flimsy keywords.

Focus on the facts

Here’s are two facts I want to lay upon you:

1. Focus keywords are important.
2. Not everyone knows how to utilize them.

The SEO Framework always stood strong in a corner, awaiting experts to utilize many of its great features. And it’s time to take a stand in the center: I want The SEO Framework to be part of de facto standard when it comes to open source development. Even more so, I want it to be de facto standard in SEO for WordPress.

The principle still stands that WordPress is a platform for everyone. Open Source means free from any warranty, free from liability, and free to do whatever you want (…while abiding by the law). But, I also want it to be free from advertisements, free from limitations, and free from disingenuous acts.

So, I want to bring two more facts:

3. I am not going to limit keyword usage, just so I could sell you a license.
4. I am not going to place ads, telling you that there’s more.

To get product exposure, you need to advertise. And, as I don’t want to advertise the products myself, I hope my users do this instead. This means I’m very reliant on the enthusiasm of my users. This isn’t easy because I need to make users (i.e. you) enthusiastic first. And to do so, I need to bring a damn good product.

In conjunction with embracing the “no limitation” policy, I must go further than just giving everything the user needs. That is to say, giving users what they didn’t know they needed. And this brings me to the following two facts:

5. I need to give you a complete product that actually works.
6. To do so, focus keywords must be focus subjects.

Focus on the solution

Focus keywords distract copywriters from writing quality content. They tell the writer to spam one keyword (or long-tail keyword) over and over again. It doesn’t know anything about the inflections (different forms) or synonyms of the keyword.

This isolates you from writing abstractly… this isolates you from writing rich and engaging content. As an artist, you want to be a free spirit, and you want to interact with like-minded people. As a business owner, you want to be clear to your customer, and you want to convince that your solution is for them. In either case, with a focus keyword, you strip out the personality of what you thought to have.

In comes the focus subject

Simple AI can only go so far; but, give it more information to process and it gives you richer answers. So, instead of just giving a single keyword to process, we manifest all inflections and synonyms of the word, which you can personally choose from. All these words combined go through one rugged system, and the system then paints you a full and more personal picture.

To achieve this, I had many iterations of the end-product. Even whilst writing the software, I had to break it down to go in another direction. I even had to rewrite the fundamental analysis as it was asking too much from older hardware. All with the following in mind: “The users mustn’t be taxed; they should just do their writing, and the extension must give them advice without interruption.”

Focus on a dictionary

Instead of giving users advice to go grab a dictionary and fill in their own inflections and synonyms, I have written an API that runs via the Extension Manager. This API connects you to external dictionary APIs, and they give you everything you need to build a subject.

Now, the dictionary APIs don’t do everything I want yet; so, expect future updates that allow you to embrace what I had in mind to the fullest extent.

Focus

Focus is an extension. It will be shipped with the Extension Manager version 1.5.0.

It’s clean, it’s smarter, it’s free from ads, and it’s free from covetous limitations. Finally, you can have the product I wanted: A subject analysis tool that performs, for everyone.