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Search engine forums have been around for years.  One of the more popular of late is the Searchenginewatch.com forum.

In this article I look at some of the more popular forum topics.

When your belly is full from all that turkey you are going to eat, and you aren’t sure if you should nap or read perhaps I can make a suggestion.

Why not check out a few of the more popular searchenginewatch forums as voted on by the readers.

These are the forums which the users of searchenginewatch have picked to be the best, either in terms of content, information provided and opinions expressed.

Keywords Co-occurrence and Semantic Connectivity

One of my favorite posts. I’ve read through most of it.

Some of this stuff is very technical, and gets into the mathematics behind semantics and how search engines apply it.

If you are a technically minded person I’d recommend reading this one.  Even if your eyes begin to get droopy from the turkey dinner, drink some coffee and continue reading.  You will learn a whole lot more about where search is going.

Google Sitemaps Now Accepting Web Page Feeds

Another good topic regarding Google’s Sitemap Submission program.

With this program you can create and submit an XML based sitemap.  Personally, I feel that if you’re having problems getting indexed by the engines to begin with, then a Google sitemap isn’t going to do much for you.

Sure it will get you indexed, but all those factors such as link popularity and PageRank inheritance which can help improve your rankings can be lost.

While I still feel that you should first make your site appealing to crawlers and get them to crawl naturally, it’s still worth the read through.

whitehat vs. blackhat, it is all BS

One of my favorite topics because there are a lot of self proclaimed white hatters who are really more a shade of gray than pure white.

My feeling is that if you do anything to manipulate search rankings you are not truly white hat.  Therefore there is no such thing as white hat SEO.

That being said, its entertaining to read some of the other opinions out there.  Self proclaimed black hatters are the most vocal mostly because they accept what they do and will even admit that it’s not always the best thing in terms of search but, hey, they make a living at it.  If site owners are willing to pay for black hat techniques then I say go for it.

Especially since many of the loopholes which allow blackhatters to exist are slowly disappearing.  If they can still make a living with todays search engines then I say great for them.

Concerned about Validity of Overture & WordTracker Numbers

This has always been a concern with SEO’s.  Mostly because these two sources for traffic numbers represent such a small percentage of the total online population one wonders if they can ever be accurate.

That being said, since there is no real alternative (at least not one that’s been made public) you do have to rely on these and a little gut instinct when choosing keywords.

While Overture seems to be wildly out, consider that these numbers only account for Yahoo! And MSN traffic.  Wordtracker on the other hand uses second tier engines like Dogpile.

And this is where the gut instinct comes in – do you think the term is right for you? Look at the search space – can you compete? These questions need to be answered when considering the phrases these two sources suggest to you.

Hyphenated URLs

Another great SEO topic.  There’s been much debate as to what’s the best way to separate phrases in your URL’s.  For a long time many believed that underscores were best.  More recently GoogleGuy Matt Cutts has come out to say that dashes are better.

On the other hand I’ve also had success with plus signs (+) and tildes (~).

So really, the choice is yours. Even with dashes there are pros and cons.

For example, some feel that a hyphenated URL may lead Google to think that this is a spam URL (much like cheap-viagra-delivered-to-your-door-discreetly.com).  While Google hasn’t come out to say this is true, no one has yet dismissed it yet either.

SE-friendly Open Source CMS

Still another topic near and dear to my heart is SE friendly CMS systems.

For the longest time there was no such thing as a SE friendly CMS which generated static URL’s and allowed you to add custom meta tags.

Today that’s not the case.  There are dozens, if not hundreds, and more coming out every day.

There’s even many open source varieties as well as search friendly e-commerce systems.  So really a decision in this field comes down to your budget and your ability to implement the chosen system.

Still a worthy read though as there are many valid points brought up.

Editorial: The Lords of Ye ‘Olde ODP

My last recommendation for today has to do with the ODP.  One of the staples of the internet, the ODP’s reputation has taken a beating lately.  Rumors of corrupt editors, poor editorial skills and people having to buy listings have been circulating for the past year or so.

This post goes into a little more detail on the subject and does provide some good insights into the ODP including where it’s failed and what it can do to improve.

So by the time you’ve scanned these posts, and perhaps pulled a few gems out of them you will find that you now have room in your belly for a piece of pumpkin pie and another glass of Thanksgiving Cheer!

Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com