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.
Plural vs singular keyword usage - on-page optimization
-
The on-page report card appears to include both plural and singular versions of keywords in reporting the keywords within the body, which results in a keyword stuffing warning.
My question is, is it truly keyword spamming to use over 15 instances of a keyword that is spread across plural and singular versions of the keyword? If keywords are lumped together this way by Google's algorithms, why do pages rank differently for singular and plural versions of the same keyword?
-
Great answers here.
Keep in mind the idea of "keyword stuffing" is a fluid concept. A well-written Wikipedia article may use the same keyword 60 times without being flagged for stuffing.
Context is key. If it makes sense to use your keywords multiple times than it's usually fine. The biggest violators that we usually see are in the title tag "Buy Cheap Florida Homes - Florida Home Finder - Your Best Florida Home Broker" - ouch!
As for plurals, Google will rank different pages differently based on what they perceive as searcher intent. I don't know of any hard and fast rules here - some plurals are considered synonymous with the singular version, while other times it can make a difference in ranking.
-
Nice Article, Eliathah
-
replace about 10 of those with synonyms - less is better. make sure everything else lines up, file name, title tags, h1, internal anchor texts, etc.
-
Nathan,
15 repeats is a bit excessive but then again your question about why Google in ranking the terms differently is one I asked myself a couple of times now. I use singular and plural version of a word for one of my websites. The search volume for both is not the same. The plural version is a bit lower then the singular one.
Still if you optimize your page for the plural version the singular one should be taken into consideration because in my case the singular version of the word is part of the plural (minicamping and minicampings). The problem is in the fact that these words match for the biggest part.
I would suggest reducing the number of times the word(s) is/are repeated by at least 5 no matter how big the content is, unless it is completely natural off course. That all depends on the words you are using I guess.
Hope this helps
kind regards
Jarno
-
I guess it depends on the length of the content. Typically, 15 occurrences is excessive, even if it alternated between the singular and plural versions. I would suggest developing your content around keyword themes using many variants, not just the singular and plural versions.
here's a blog post i did on the subject of keyword theming - http://searchsolve.blogspot.com/2012/10/developing-content-around-keyword.html
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
-
Domain keyword ranking
I used to use Searchmetrics (years ago) which enabled me to add in the domain name into their website, and it would provide all the keywords that rank for it. Does Moz do that do you know? Thanks
Keyword Research | | patn_studio0 -
Long tail keyword research
Hi guys, what is the best practice to find the long tail keywords, like Google Instant Suggestion, people also search, or moz keyword explorer I have experienced a lot in MOZ pro Keyword Planner, but now I want to know easiest way to find long tail keywords for my website olehana Makeup, still I'm using just 3 keyword that I already ranked in Google SERP top 3 positions now I also want that some long tail keywords also gets ranked.
Keyword Research | | daimon670 -
Is it a bad idea to hyphenate keywords?
Hello, my understanding was that Google reads hyphens in keywords as spaces, but if that's accurate how come keywords with hyphens that I research with Keyword Explorer — for instance, hospital-acquired infections — rank lower when I include the hyphen? If the hyphen hurts SEO, do I have to remove them all from the blog or page in question? Removing hyphens means a blog or page will have punctuation errors, which is irritating to an editor, but I don't want to sacrifice the effectiveness of keywords, either. Thanks, in advance, for your response!
Keyword Research | | SallieJ0 -
Paid vs Organic Keyword Optimisation
Hi Im wondering whether I should optimise my site with Organic search terms that drive traffic to the site or the paid terms i use in Google search ads?
Keyword Research | | aplnzmarch180 -
How to finalize the keywords for SEO?
Hi, I use the following method for keyword research: Create a long raw list of keywords. Use Google AdWords Keyword tool to find monthly searches. Find raw competition. Find direct competition (via allinanchor: search operator) Calculate KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) Calculate KOI (Keyword Opportunity Index) Is there any other (better) way to execute the keyword research? Or is finalizing/selecting the keywords only on the basis of monthly searches sufficient? In short, how to select the best keywords from a long list? Thanks & Regards
Keyword Research | | IM_Learner0 -
Why does this keyword have much greater volume in Bing Keyword Research Tool than Google AdWords Keyword Planner?
I'm using the Google AdWords keyword planner and Bing Webmaster Keyword Research tool. For both, I'm trying to get accurate search volume for the exact term "advertising sales". Over the last thirty days, Bing reports a volume of 5,988. Google's average monthly search volume is 880. Given the market share Google has, I would expect a much higher volume, especially when compared to Bing. Can you offer some ideas of why this might be happening?
Keyword Research | | Kevin_P0 -
Keywords for fabrication (welding) company??
I've been tasked with finding the keywords for our website. The difficulty I'm finding is receiving help from the fabrication personal to suggest keywords. I'm not sure if its peoples imagination or if there's a general unwillingness. Can anyone make any suggestions here? Is there a fabrication or welding keyword database I can put to them and hopefully get their brains working? Or even a way to see what keywords our competitors use?
Keyword Research | | Resolver1010 -
Keyword Difficulty Score Assesment
What is a good keyword difficulty score to pursue when deciding which keywords to try and rank on? I'm in a very competitive field and I am currently in the process of doing keyword research to look for the low hanging fruit.
Keyword Research | | 13375auc30