Google Semantic Search: Now I'm really confused
-
I'm struggling to understand why I rank for some terms and not for other closely related ones. For example:
property in Toytown but NOT properties in toytown
property for sale in Toytown but NOT property for sale Toytown NOR properties for sale Toytown.
My gut instinct is that I don't have enough of the second phrasing as inbound link anchor text -- but didn't Penguin/Panda make all that obsolete?
-
Go do a search for "property" and "properties" on Google. You will see that the results that are returned are different. This is because Google treats singulars and plurals as different keywords. Someone searching for "property" has a different search intent than someone searching for "properties".
Think about the search intent of someone searching for property vs properties. Properties to me suggests someone looking for a list of a bunch of different properties on one page, whereas "property" seems more specific.
If you think that your page is relevant to both queries, then include both keywords on the page and possibly in the title to increase your relevance for those terms. Get backlinks to that page using both keywords as anchor text.
If you don't think your page can adequately serve people searching for both keywords, then it makes sense to create two separate pages targeted at each keyword. Yes, this can be done in a spammy way, but it can also be done in a way that adds value to the user and provides a better fit for what your user is searching for.
-
Singulars and plurals are different keywords in the eyes of Google.
See, I'm not sure about that: If I Google,say, property in spain, some of the results include sites with properties (but not property) in the title tag.
It may also make sense to create a separate page focused on the second keyword.
But surely this is the definition of webspam? If my first page is about "property", then a second page focusing on "properties" brings absolutely nothing new to the table -- apart from attempting to game the search engines.
Just my two pennies'/cents' worth.
-
Singulars and plurals are different keywords in the eyes of Google. For example, property and properties are different (but related) keywords, and can return completely different results.
If you are ranking for one, and not the other, then you may need to improve your on-page optimization or get more backlinks. It may also make sense to create a separate page focused on the second keyword.
Penguin/Panda absolutely DID NOT make anchor text obsolete. Anchor text still matters, Penguin simply penalized sites that abused it on a large scale using spammy links. Panda had nothing to do with links, but instead focused on penalizing low quality/thing content sites.
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
-
Can I know which keywords lost their top rankings on google a year ago if the client didn't checked the keyword rankings in his website?
Hi, Can I know which keywords lost their top rankings on google a year ago if the client didn't checked the keyword rankings in his website? Thanks Roy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kadut1 -
Are iframes really an organic search problem?
I'm helping someone with a new site that will have pages for organic search that contain embedded video. Some will be youtube embeds and some will be wistia embeds. These pages will have several hundred words of transcript text and the embeds (iframes) iframes themselves will be rather small, but expandable and possibly more than one per page. The transcript text area is more like 80% of the page. Do you think this is an organic search problem? I use one site audit tool that calls this out as a serious warning. Currently, the embedded player(s) are a column down the left side, about 1/4th of the width of the page, and the transcripts are everything else, wrapping around it. The transcripts are fully readable and not hidden in some kind of expandable accordion or anything. Does layout matter in this issue? Thanks... Darcy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
Why do Local "5 pack" results vary between showing Google+, Google+ and website address
I had a client ask me a good question. When they pull up a search result they show up at the top but only with a link to their G+ page. Other competitors show their web address and G+ page. Why are these results different in the same search group? Is there a way to ensure the web address shows up?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ron_McCabe0 -
Google Custom Searches with site CSS
Anyone good with GCS. I want to add Google custom searches in my site but with my site CSS.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | csfarnsworth
I need results from GCS but want to display with my website CSS. Website is in OSCommerce and php.0 -
Been away for a while is SEO really dead ? I don't think so...
I have been struggling with the google updates but recently we started a new project and by using guest blog posts we were able to achieve a top 3 ranking. It delivered traffic and sales so SEO still works. This is my understanding of the current situation - 1. Generic Keywords (forget it) 2. Go niche and long tail (but thats been the case for a while right) 3. Using related searches 4. Incoming links using brands and a wider range of phrases and urls. 5. Content thats sharable 6. Google plus buttons etc This is my current understanding I would love to hear your thoughts.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | onlinemediadirect0 -
Custom Google Search & Joomla/Wordpress
If you install google custom search on a site - does it record a list of all the searches people type into the search box? Is there a Joomla & Wordpress Search plugin/extension that keeps a track of the search history used on your site(s).
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
Will blocking google and SE's from indexing images hurt SEO?
Hi, We have a bit of a problem where on a website we are managing, there are thousands of "Dynamically" re-sized images. These are stressing out the server as on any page there could be upto 100 dynamically re-sized images. Google alone is indexing 50,000 pages a day, so multiply that by the number of images and it is a huge drag on the server. I was wondering if it maybe an idea to blog Robots (in robots.txt) from indexing all the images in the image file, to reduce the server load until we have a proper fix in place. We don't get any real value from having our website images in "Google Images" so I am wondering if this could be a safe way of reducing server load? Are there any other potential SEO issues this could cause?? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | James770 -
Questions regarding Google's "improved url handling parameters"
Google recently posted about improving url handling parameters http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/07/improved-handling-of-urls-with.html I have a couple questions: Is it better to canonicalize urls or use parameter handling? Will Google inform us if it finds a parameter issue? Or, should we have a prepare a list of parameters that should be addressed?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0