Title Question... Plurals & Synonyms? Options

[JasonN]

I'll just give an example I'm deliberating.

I have a page on my fly fishing website for mayflies of the genus Baetis. The page is mostly pictures of these flies (for fly tiers to imitate).

Anyway, an appropriate title would be, "Pictures of Baetis mayfly nymphs."

However, I'm then missing keywords like "photographs" (synonym) and "mayflies" (plural) that would be just as relevant and just as common in searches.

So would I be better off with a title like "Pictures of Baetis mayflies, mayfly nymph photographs"?

It's less coherently descriptive, but it fits in more keywords.... is this something I should be doing? It kind of goes against my instincts as a designer but I'm new to SEO.

[JamesW]

I would recommend you use Wordtracker but I wouldn't imagine these are very popular keywords.

What about:

Baetis Mayflies Pictures and Mayfly Nymph Photographs

Cheers

James

[Matt]

What about:

Pictures and photographs of Baetis mayflies and the mayfly nymph


Google seems to pick up the plurals e.g. picture(s) / photograph(s) so if you use :

pictures of mayflies as a search term - Google would pick up picture and pictures in your title, but for mayfly, I would use mayfly and mayflies to be safe.

[Jill]

So would I be better off with a title like "Pictures of Baetis mayflies, mayfly nymph photographs"?

Yes, that would be perfect.

Jill

[amabaie]

I would go with "Pictures and photographs of Baetis mayfly nymphs". Google will pick up the singular/plurals of all the words through stemming, and given that these are not highly searched terms, you should rank equally well for plural or singular.

Then I would make sure you have links pointing to the page, and just mix up the words a bit in each link between the plural and singular.

[Jill]

I wouldn't. You're splitting your phrases up that way in the Title.

Jill

[OldWelshGuy]

Having the exact phrase in the title is essential SEO.

It not only makes it so much better for SEO, but also for the copy, as by matching the phrase in the title to the phrase on the page, and then splitting the anchor text across links. you make the page far less likely to appear chunky, and your task so much easier.

I always lay out my researched key phrases per page, and incorporate them into the title. if your not putting the exact match phrase into the title, then you are making life very hard for yourself.

Get the most commonly used form of singular or plural into the title, then use BOTH forms within the phrase on the page, and also use both forms in the anchor text.

People often search for plurals, when they really want the singular eg 'safari holidays' v safari holiday. Do the research, major on the most popular, then combine the singular on the same page, and you should do well for both phrases

OWG

<added Afterthought> If someone was to ask me what the single most important thing they have to get right was, I would say 'get your phrase in your title and on your page. Oh thats 2 single things lol

[Jill]

OWG...you've brought a tear to this old SEO's eye...

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/kiss2.gif)

[amabaie]

Jill, OWG, I respect the need, for competitive terms, to get just the right phrase, which might mean plurals of every word. But these are non-competitive search terms, and if the page and the inbound links have a variety of versions (singular/plural), it should be enough.

Yes, a scalpel is absolutely necessary for heart surgery, but for trimming the lilac bushes a hedge trimmer is much more effective. We are trimming bushes here.

[SearchRank]

Stemming is all fine and dandy but if you are competing against others for "exact phrases" then better list them as such in the title tags and in the copy as OWG said. That is the best way to do it IMO and in my 7 plus years of experience at this. If you want to effectively target plural and singular versions of a word, then it is best to make sure both are represented and not hope that Google will recognize or pick out "picture" when "pictures" is actually represented.

[JasonN]

Wow, thanks for all the tips. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

You're right that these aren't hugely popular search terms; however, my site consists of hundreds of pages like this for all different sorts of specific critters, and I like to be at the top for each of hundreds of somewhat non-competitive terms. There is some competition... fly fishermen are a scientifically curious bunch. Coming in at the top for 200+ terms that see 1-30 searches a month can add up. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've also somehow managed to get to around number 14 on Google for "desktop backgrounds" which surprised the heck out of me... I hope it lasts. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[OldWelshGuy]

Yes, a scalpel is absolutely necessary for heart surgery, but for trimming the lilac bushes a hedge trimmer is much more effective.

Oh I don't know David, I can think of one or two people I have crossed paths with in my life, where the hedge trimmer would be my 'weapon of choice' for open heart surgery (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/lmao.gif)

Jason N have a look at WHY you rank 14 for that phrase, you might learn something that you have done that can be applied to other phrases. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[amabaie]

Oh I don't know David, I can think of one or two people I have crossed paths with in my life, where the hedge trimmer would be my 'weapon of choice' for open heart surgery 

Touché.

[BrianR]

Hmmm... remind me to give South Wales a miss if I ever need open heart surgery!

BrianR

[OldWelshGuy]

No you guys are all right, I reserve the 'hedge trimmer' treatment to those 'special people' we meet (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)