Do you track both plural and singular variations of your keywords?
-
Howdy,
In trying to make the most of the keyword tracking slots we get with the SEOmoz tool our discussion turned to the importance of tracking both variations of search terms that could be plural or singular.
The example is that we run a local business search database so we target search terms like "chicago pet stores" and "chicago pet store", however the language of our site almost always uses the plural version of the business category.
On one hand we want to know exactly how we rank for variations of search terms, but on the other, with the number of categories we have we could be tracking thousands upon thousands if we included every variation ("pet store chicago", "pet stores in chicago", etc.)
So what say ye fellow optimizers? Is it worth tracking variations of search terms or do you find that Google is smart enough in coalescing the intent of similar search variants that tracking against the most commonly searched one is enough?
Thank you all!
-
The only concern I have about getting to granular is time. Things like the 80/20 rule come to mind. You don't want to chase down minor details when there are big fish getting away. With that said, there is a lot of traffic involved with plural vs singular keywords. Your time is well spent!
-
From watching the SERPs and visitor behavior in my niche... I believe that singular queries tend to be informational.... plural queries seem to be transactional.
-
I have a subscription at both SEOMOZ & Raventools.
Read up on raven and you will see why, especially when it comes to managing many many keywords and staying on top of reporting.
-
I completely agree with you, so much so in fact that some people say I go too far with how granular I get in my data collection/analytics. This question was ultimately a spot check to see if I was going too far, or not far enough.
Thank you for your insight!
-
My problem is that I already have over 100 keywords being tracked for one site and I'm getting ready to launch 2 more, this could get cumbersome!
SEO is highly competitive. High quality SEO involves a lot of work. If it was easy, then everyone would do it
It's up to you to determine if it is worthwhile to track both. My answer is yes, it is. If you are here at SEOmoz, you clearly have a desire to implement industry best practices. SEO is purely a competition. Think Rocky and his opponent slugging it out. You are either prepared to stand toe-to-toe with your competitors and fight for rankings, or you are not. If you want to be ranked at the top, you need to EARN the position and that involves a commitment to do all the work involved.
This is my approach to SEO. Not everyone agrees
-
Yeah the search volume differs greatly, the question is just whether the page I have will rank more or less the same for the plural vs singular and if not would it be so different that it's worth tracking both.
My problem is that I already have over 100 keywords being tracked for one site and I'm getting ready to launch 2 more, this could get cumbersome!
-
This is my issue. In many cases I rank equally well for both singular and plural so it feels like a waste to use one of my keyword slots tracking both when instead I could use it to track another keyword entirely.
I guess for the time being I'll keep tracking both.
-
Agreed, i always check both singular and plural. Not only for traffic reasons but for difficulty as well!
-
For me it depends on the search results in question and also the keyword volumes in the Google Keyword Tool. More often than not, in my industry I find different results (and rankings) for the singular and plural keywords so I do keep track. It is also baffling to me that I can rank #3 for the singular version but #8 for the plural variation of the keyword. Or Google Places will show up for the singular version but not the plural!!
I also use Advanced Web Ranking to automate ranking reports so keeping track of rankings is no problem at all.
-
Do you track both plural and singular variations of your keywords?
I track both the singular and plural versions. It makes a difference. Pick a keyword such as "childrens book" and then search for "childrens books". You will see the results vary. In some instances, there is a huge difference.
According to Google's Keyword tool:
Apple - 83 million global monthly searches
Apples - 6 million global monthly searches.
To use a more relevant example:
Chicago pet store - 5400 global monthly searches
Chicago pet stores - 6600 global monthly searches
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Seasonal keyword tracking locally?
I'm managing a project for a local fence contractor in Wisconsin. During Fall, his site was getting a fair amount of traffic. (We only track traffic from the State of Wisconsin and exclude office IPs.) For November, traffic tanked and keywords fell. Is there a way to check the search volume by month to see if the recent extreme cold and early snow are the culprit, (people not searching for fences), or should I be looking elsewhere for a problem? I know I have to get more pages optimized for ideal keywords but time is extremely tight on this project. (But, that's another problem and story all of itself!) Thanks!
Moz Pro | | JanetJ0 -
Keyword Suggestion Tool
I want to know is their any good keyword suggestion tool other than Google keyword suggestion tool and keyword planner. I need to have a list of free ones only for now.
Moz Pro | | csfarnsworth0 -
Why is it that certain keywords in my seomoz report card are for the wrong urls
Hi Guys, why is it that seomoz's On Page Optimization Reports for Google TH are attributing certain keywords with certain urls which are wrong? What mean is an example keyword - 'chiang mai villas for rent' has been scored an F against my home page url rather than using our 'Chiang Mai' url, why is this, is there a coding issue on my site? Is it that seomoz is finding something on my home page to suggest I want it to rank for this keyword?
Moz Pro | | ewanTHH0 -
Keywords Best Practices for On-Page Optimization
Hi guys, we've successfully optimized our home page such that it receives a Grade A for 3 completely different, high traffic keywords. Looking forward to seeing the results! The keywords in question were identified by using the monthly searches reported from the Google Keyword Tool. For one of the keywords, the Google Keyword Tool differentiates between what I thought would be seen as being the same. For example, let's say Google reports these three keywords as high traffic keywords: tea cup
Moz Pro | | yacpro13
tea cups
the tea cup Using the On-Page Report Card, we get a Grade A for 'tea cup', but we get an F for the other 2 terms! I thought Google searches didn't really care about the plural form or adding the word 'the' in front. How should we interpret the result from the On-Page Report Card for the plural form of the keyword and with the word 'the' added in front? Would you track all 3 instances of the keyword independtly in your campaign, or would you just track 'tea cup'? Thanks!0 -
SEOMoz Campaigns: Bulk management / deletion of keywords?
For the SEOMoz campaign tool, how do you manage / delete / export keywords in bulk? We have several hundred keywords and need to delete some efficiently from a campaign. I see how you can delete words from one page of the list, but is there a way to combine the keywords with ranking or traffic data to stack-rank, and than delete the "least valuable"? Tough to manage in bulk
Moz Pro | | sftravel0 -
Tracking Keyword Positions
Hello! I've been working with the various Google Docs Spreadsheets out there taking advantage of web scraping using xml and the seomoz api. I want to be able to track keyword rank by week, I've been playing around but can't seem to get it nailed on, I'm looking to put keyword in column 1, domain in col 2 and keyword rank on google uk in col 3. Anybody done/seen anything like this in a G spreadsheet? Cheers Jamie
Moz Pro | | ChapterEight0 -
How many keywords can I look at at once in keyword difficulty tool?
Can I do like 15 at once? I'm also looking at a way to export all the data from multiple keywords in one view, it seems I can only export individual keywords. Is there a better seomoz tool to accomplish this?
Moz Pro | | insitegoogle0 -
A tool for seeing all the keywords a website ranks for
As title, is there a tool out there that will allow you to see all the keywords a website ranks for in the first few pages of a particlur search engine? I would be particularly interested for keywords in the first 10 pages of Google. Thanks
Moz Pro | | blagger0