Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Title Tags: Does having the singular and plural version of the keyword hurt the ranking?
-
I'm wondering if there is a duplication issue with having a singular AND plural version of a keyword in the Title Tag.
For example: Wood Desk - Wood Desks| Furniture Store
Would this help or hurt my ranking for this URL? I can’t find a concrete answer for this under Moz’s “Title Tag SEO Best Practices Page.”
Thanks for your help!
-
Basically yes, if you were to come up under the query "Wood Desk" google would highlight Wood Desks .
-
True true. SERPs for a singular will not be 100% the same as SERPs for the plural in many cases but there are often overlaps. Keyword research will help in determination of which may be the better trafficked and/or more valuable term. Natural inclusion in the body can potentially make up for lack of inclusion in the title. Also, considering that Google will in some cases change your title and description to better suit a searcher's query for which you are also relevant, you can't rely too heavily on title optimization alone as a factor in your ranking though it is a viable signal.
-
Your example:
Wood Desks - Home Student Office Desk designs by | Furniture Store
You said that Wood Desk and Wood Desks are the first two keywords. Are you suggesting that because "Wood Desk" is within "Wood Desks", that Google counts both keywords?
-
Singular and plural search results vary and are still treated differently and if that's what you want to rank for (which was his question) i would recommend it in both the title tag and also include both singular and plural in the body content a couple times of course.
I definitely agree though it needs to be reader friendly from a marketing perspective, and also since title tag is limited space, doing keyword research might help you uncover a secondary keyword phrase that might be more valuable than including a plural or singular secondary keyword phrase.
-
I don't know that anybody can give you a concrete answer. I can say that having a plural and non plural keyword will not outright cause any penalty as our website uses this strategy for some of our pages. These pages have been ranked as far back as 50+ and over the last year have found their way to top 10 results.
In your example the more daming issue would be the repetitive "Wood" in the title then the plural versions. When creating a title tag I find that it is very easy to get caught up in the keywords which is not good, you should focus on clearly and directly describing your page that is after all what the "Title" is for. Further harm can be done by focusing on just a couple keywords as you inadvertently discount long tail keywords, which can be as powerful as keywords you focus on. The best approach is to know your keywords, use them in the title and accurately title your page.
To expand on your example..
Wood Desks - Home Student Office Desk designs by | Furniture Store
This tile has both Wood Desk and Wood Desks as its first 2 keywords, and uses nearly all the remaining characters to include more information about what would be found on this page. I'm also not a fan of ending with Brand / Domain unless it is going to be heavily marketed.
Hope that helps,
-
In most cases Google is smart enough to understand that a page relevant for "Wood Desk" could or should show up in searches for "Wood Desks" and vice versa. As such, it's not really necessary to make sure that you shoehorn in all of the plurals and singulars of your core terms. Worry about it more from a Human standpoint. Making the title more human accessible will help with clickthroughs, visits, and so on. Forcing multiple variations of the same word into a title in order to attempt catching every variable will probably make people skip over you. And ultimately, getting the qualified traffic is what much of SEO is about.
-
Desk and Desks is good but wood twice is not
find strongest primary and secondary matches
Assuming the plural is more valuable than the singular, and wood is more valuable than wooden
<title>Buy Wood Desks | Wooden Desk Sets | Bob's Discount Furniture</title>
Assuming the singular is more valuable, and wooden is more valuable than wood
<title>Buy Wooden Desk Sets | Wood Desks | Bobs Discount Furniture</title>
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
-
Keyword Stuffing
Working on optimizing my e-commerce website. We have managed to obtain very good ranking on most keywords that we use directing to different products. However, there is one that ranks very low, and Moz alerts that keyword stuffing might be one of the reasons. While I have edited the content to include less of the same keyword on that particular page, the links to different products that contain the same keyword from the same page (accessories and related products) I believe are increasing my count and it seems to be working against me. \ Should I start eliminating some of these links so as to eventually obtain a better ranking? any help would be greatly appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | NewVape0 -
Commas in title tags
Hello Guys, Thanks in advance for all who can help me with this I am helping a dinnerware company with their SEO. I told them to change their ambiguous title tags for more specific ones. However, they opted to create some title tags with 2 or three keywords separated by commas. I have attached an excel image illustrating their new title tags.. My question is, will this format be a problem with Google--penalties? The questionable title tags are highlighted in light orange. Thanks! lHH92
On-Page Optimization | | HectorCortes0 -
Difference in using dividers in TITLE TAG
Hi everyone, i know that dividers in title or even title tag doesnt have much of an impact on better rankings. I had great rankings for many keywords, not using dividers or using only one divider. However for better reading comprehension and usability, and also aesthetics i started to use the pipe as my main divider and other secondary dividers. I saw many pages drop in rankings vs other less competent and with less content pages. My format was as follows: Product Brand | Product description - Additional info or local info ie. Fiber Glass MBI | Insulation Batts for Home and Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation I changed the format for a handful of pages, and saw immediate results on rankings and traffic on those pages. Product Brand with Product Description - Additional Info ie. Fiber Glass MBI Insulation Batts for Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation. Does it sound like something i should implement page wide. I personally like the aesthetics of the pipe as it gives a cleaner look, but the better rankings on the changed pages with using only one divider makes me think. Does it sound familiar, or its just a coincidence, Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | JesusD0 -
Should we add our company's name in page title tag or not?
We have been adding our company (Townscript) name in all the page titles. For example, in an event page of Lucknow Conclave: www.townscript.com/lucknowconclave the page title is Lucknow Conclave | Alexis Society | Townscript I read somewhere that it's not necessary to put your company's name in the title tag. Is it right? Please help!
On-Page Optimization | | sanchitmalik0 -
Avoid Keyword Dilution
Hi
On-Page Optimization | | ulefos
I am struggling with keyword dilution, and I don't understand what I need to do to change.I have read it but don't get it. This is the explanation - You want to target each keyword with a single page on your site, so modify the anchor text of this link so it is not an exact match. The only thing that I see is the title and the anchor text the same and the image alt also the same is that what the problem is here is the page I am trying to sort out for the keyword kiln dried logs.
Thank you0 -
Page Title in Local SEO Title Tags?
Hi All, Still working on my title tag usage for local SEO, and I was hoping for some more feedback. My question is this: In Local SEO titles, I'm using location + keyword combinations, unique on each page. However, since each page has a specific title for the client, I figure I should be placing that at the front. My thought here was that this helps with the overall usability to the reader of the website. Ex. Contact Us page for Pizza shop Contact Us | Springfield IN Gourmet Pizza | Moe's Italian Pizza Anyone have thoughts on this one? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | kbaltzell0 -
Keyword Stuffing in Alt Tags!
Hello, I have on a main page over 50 images. The first page i want to optimize it for MAINKW (let's say). Now, if i use in the alt tags "MAINKW KW1", "MAINKW KW2", "MAINKW KW3" ... "MAINKW KW50" then Google may say that i stuff the MAINKW in that page? Those images are reprezentative for main Categories and i have direct links to them from the main page with the anchors KW1, KW2...KW50.
On-Page Optimization | | VertiStudio0 -
Title tag for category page
I'd like to know your views on the best approach for title tags for category pages for ecommerce sites. 3 examples A) Category name | Free delivery on $50 purchase | Brand name B) Discover best "category name" on brand name C) Category Name | 1st Keyword, 2nd keyword | Brand name Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | walidalsaqqaf0