30 replies to this topic

[qwerty]

Well, targeting a word means at the very least either putting it on the page or as the anchor text of a link pointing to the page. The more competitive that word (or phrase) is, the more you have to push it, by getting more links, putting it on the page more, in the title, etc.

Now, when you suggest "Title - Titles" I assume you're talking about putting both the plural and the singular in the page's title tag. Yes, sometimes you need to do that, but I wouldn't do it in quite that way. Say your keyword phrases are [antique lead crystal wine glass] and the plural. I would not recommend making the title tag of the page "Antique Lead Crystal Wine Glass - Antique Lead Crystal Wine Glasses" -- although I've seen plenty of examples of that being done. If you find that you need to get both into the title, I'd choose the more competitive of the two, use it in full, and only use part of the other, which would give me something like "Antique Lead Crystal Wine Glasses - Rare Antique Glass". For the singular in that example, all of the words of the keyword phrase are there; they're just not they're together in exact order.

[CompetentDomains]

I made a google search for both. Plural search gave only plural results among the results on the first page and the single search gave single results first followed by plurals on the first page.

[Tiffany Hua]

Well, targeting a word means at the very least either putting it on the page or as the anchor text of a link pointing to the page. The more competitive that word (or phrase) is, the more you have to push it, by getting more links, putting it on the page more, in the title, etc.

Now, when you suggest "Title - Titles" I assume you're talking about putting both the plural and the singular in the page's title tag. Yes, sometimes you need to do that, but I wouldn't do it in quite that way. Say your keyword phrases are [antique lead crystal wine glass] and the plural. I would not recommend making the title tag of the page "Antique Lead Crystal Wine Glass - Antique Lead Crystal Wine Glasses" -- although I've seen plenty of examples of that being done. If you find that you need to get both into the title, I'd choose the more competitive of the two, use it in full, and only use part of the other, which would give me something like "Antique Lead Crystal Wine Glasses - Rare Antique Glass". For the singular in that example, all of the words of the keyword phrase are there; they're just not they're together in exact order.

Thanks, if so, how will you deal with the keywords? Do you prefer to use commas or just leave a space. I have heard of the two kinds of keywords writing, for example: meta keywords = "Antique Lead Crystal Wine Glasses, Rare Antique Glass" or "rare antique lead crystal wine glass", which one is better or maybe you have a third writing method?

I made a google search for both. Plural search gave only plural results among the results on the first page and the single search gave single results first followed by plurals on the first page.

It is not necessarily the case I think. Qwerty, how do you think?

[qwerty]

You can ignore the meta keywords tag. It really doesn't do anything. If you want, you can use it just for your own notes, as a way of saying "these are the keywords for this page" so that you can keep track of things when you're writing your content or working out your links.

If you really want to use the tag in the hope that it will help your ranking, there was an interview a few years back with a Yahoo engineer that indicated keyword phrases should be separated by comma-space, as you would on a normal list. But that was years ago (enough years that I'm not even going to bother looking it up), the help it was suggested the tag could do was minimal (and I think only related to alternate spellings), and there's no reason to think what was said then is still the case. In other words, just skip the tag.

I made a google search for both. Plural search gave only plural results among the results on the first page and the single search gave single results first followed by plurals on the first page.

Both of what? The example I gave was off the top of my head. I don't know whether either of those phrases is competitive.

[RobIsCool]

It's understood after reading this thread that you should write content (and adjust your titles, etc., as necessary) to include both singular and plural forms of your keywords, as it is natural to do so.

My question is.. for off-page SEO, should you also work on obtaining links for "supplier" and "suppliers" , for example? Or "car" and "cars", etc.

Thanks!

[RobIsCool]

Here's another interesting topic.. what about words like "greencard" and "green card" ? Would same rules apply for optimizing these types of keywords? or "online" and "on line" etc.

[Randy]

Variety is the spice of life.

Sure the search engines will try to offer additional choices or suggest spellings for some words that they see in different forms, but most times if you see people searching one particular way you'll want to optimize for it to at least some degree.

[RobIsCool]

hi randy,
thanks for your advice. yes, i would have to agree
so would it be wise to follow this logic: if "green card" and "greencard" are both popular search terms, but "green card" is a lot more competitive of a keyword to optimize for, then focus your SEO efforts on both keywords, but with more emphasis on the more competitive keyword, "green card"?
i guess this can get complicated if people are searching "free greencard" and "free green card" and "greencard lawyer" and "green card lawyer"...

[Hyperformance]

And let's not forget those plurals too...as the topic started.

- S

[mcanerin]

I have a client who sells home medical equipment, including things like wheelchairs, etc.

Because he has a warehouse full of them, and because the sections of his website that sell wheelchairs have lots of different models to choose from, he naturally used the term "wheelchairs" as anchor text to refer to the wheelchair sections of his site. After doing KW research, it was painfully obvious that very few people shop for more than one wheelchair.

The first thing I did was make one change to one file (a footer menu include), removing the "s" from "wheelchairs". That simple, single change dramatically increased both traffic and sales.

It also turns out that people searching for the plural of things commonly bought in singles are usually looking for information and doing research, not buying. You want to learn about "plasma TV's", but you buy a "plasma TV".

Ian

[chrishirst]

You also want to consider the different spellings for keywords. Example: behaviour and behavior. One is US English and the other is Canadian English.

Ermm, No.

One is the bastardised (zed) version that merricans call english and the other IS English

[torka]

Chris:

--Torka

[BarbarasB&B]

This has been my battle for years. Bed breakfast vs. bed breakfasts. I've seen the results with my own site. They're almost two separate phrases. It's amazing. I go into my site and fanagle those two phrases just to juggle the rankings.

[Hyperformance]

To address Tiffany's question...

I have had success with comma's and all types of symbols, i.e.,

Green Cards | Greencard applications | Applying for your green card in the U.S. (etc.)

Wheelchair sales ~ Buy handi-capped wheel chairs ~ Wheelchairs for the handicapped

Hope that helps you too,

- Scott