Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Moz Tools
    3. Moz Bar
    4. Should I exclude prepositions in tracked keywords of moz analytics?

    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.

    Should I exclude prepositions in tracked keywords of moz analytics?

    Moz Bar
    3
    3
    2924
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • osaka73
      osaka73 last edited by

      I'm new to Moz.  Just set up my trial campaign, and it had suggested many keywords.  Many of the phrases that were suggested do not contain prepositions.

      For example, instead of something like "sporting good stores in Chicago" it suggested "sporting good stores Chicago"

      Today, I looked at the on-page optimization suggestions, which are (of course) suggesting that I remove prepositions from my page to rank well.

      Well, as you know, that is unnatural to the reader.  But I suspect people are searching in higher volume, leaving the prepositions out.  I know that if I were to search for a sporting goods store in Chicago, I would probably leave out "in."

      What should I do?  Should I remove all the suggested keywords, and make them readable (which people are less like using in their search?)  Do I go back to all my pages and try to optimize it for a keyword that is natural, but does not include a preposition (such as Chicago sporting goods stores) or should I be doing something else?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • LauraSultan
        LauraSultan last edited by

        I agree with Joey. Most prepositions are stop words, so they may carry less weight in the search algorithm. That's not to say they aren't important. I just searched "sporting goods stores in Atlanta" and "sporting goods stores Atlanta" and got very slightly different results for each.

        The on page optimization suggestions are just suggestions to point you in the right direction based on keywords you entered into the tool. You should never sacrifice usability for your readers in order to satisfy an SEO tool. The tool is just a starting point.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • gowebsol
          gowebsol last edited by

          I would say let your keyword research do the talking. The tried and true method is to use your "seed" keywords, gather all the suggestions you can, measure which keywords hold the most value for you, and look for the opportunities. If one of your best opportunities has prepositions in it, there is your answer. I'm willing to bet you'll find valuable keywords that use them.

          My observation is they don't carry much weight, but with voice searching on mobile, searches can be much more "conversational" when spoken into Siri or Google voice search. We tend to keep things short when we have to type it in, right? There is also Google's Hummingbird update, semantic search and natural language processing. WordStream did a great blog on this right after Google's Hummingbird update. I highly recommend you read the whole article. Here's an especially relevant quote:

          "You only have to look at how accurate Google Now has become since its introduction to see that natural language processing is going to remain a major part of Google’s plans for search."

          Overall, I'd use the prepositions. Natural language is important, sounds better, and the data is probably there suggesting you should keep it.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • 1 / 1
          • First post
            Last post

          Got a burning SEO question?

          Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


          Start my free trial


          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.

          • See all categories

          Related Questions

          • ajegunle

            Unsolved Why is my website Backlinks Lower on Moz than on SEMRush?

            backlinks

            Hi, I'm new to Moz and I am trying to find out why my website Birmingham Roofers has 7 backlinks on Moz it has 21 on SEMRush. However, I read somewhere online in one of your blog post that it crawls in real time.

            Moz Bar | | ajegunle
            1
          • Alisa884488

            Moz DA Factors

            Hello Folks, I just wanna know that on which factors does Moz calculates DA ...? and also wanna know my site DA can anyone tell me Helmet Best

            Moz Bar | | Alisa884488
            0
          • Kingalan1

            Will Removing or Disavowing Toxic Links Improve MOZ Domain Authority?

            The vast majority of the 140 domains that link to our website are very low quality directories or and other toxic links. Only about 20-30 domains are not toxic (according to Link Research Tools confirmed by out manual inspection of these links). Would removing some of these links improve of MOZ Domain Rank? What if we cannot remove them, can NOZ detect a disavow file? In general would improving the ratio between good quality and poor quality links improve domain authority? Thanks,
            Alan

            Moz Bar | | Kingalan1
            2
          • TeamViviRealEstate

            Moz says "Title Too Long", Yoast says title is the perfect length. Who's right?

            For a bunch of my pages, the MOZ Crawl Report says "Title Too Long". Yoast on my site tells me that the titles are the correct length. How can these two things be at odds with each other? Which one is right?

            Moz Bar | | TeamViviRealEstate
            0
          • HB17

            Moz Bar Not Showing DA?

            Hello all, This could be something to do with our site or the Moz bar on Chrome, I just need to know which it is so if it is our website we can look into it further. On certain sections of our website the Moz bar doesn't display any Domain Authority, not even zero, the bar just isn't present. These types of pages are php which pull in data through a feed daily. Speaking to an SEO expert they said it could be where the page is being updated so frequently, or it could be something more sinister and technically not quite right. Does anyone have any ideas? Is the Moz bar just not working for these types os pages or is it more likely something to do with my site? Ironically it's these pages which I'm having trouble with that are not showing in SERPs! Thanks! 3Foorka

            Moz Bar | | HB17
            6
          • ejunxion

            Is a higher or lower score better in keyword ranking

            I know this is a weird question, I think I have confused myself with different keyword tools. So if you get a score of 10 for your keyword, should you aim to be closer to 1 or 50?

            Moz Bar | | ejunxion
            0
          • Bonnie76

            I want to uninstall the Moz SEO toolbar. How do I do this?

            I installed the Moz toolbar and I don't understand it and it covers up important parts of websites and makes them inaccessible. I want to get it off my computer. I installed it in chrome. How do I get it off?

            Moz Bar | | Bonnie76
            1
          • Rebeca1

            Weird back link showed in moz crawl

            Some time ago somebody from this site: http://dianibeach.com created a weird link to our site which had on the end db. Later we have realized that the link was coming from every footer on each page. I believe that the back links from footer does not have realy value and even the more of them the less value. We have asked the guy to remove that links as I thought it might harm our site more then help. Now I I was very surprised to find this link in moz crawl error as second top page on our site in current index??? Can somebody explain how is this possible?? The most ridiculous thing is that when I click on that link it realy opens our site! How is that possible, what is it? This is the link: http://villasdiani.com/?db Thank you very much for any help with this

            Moz Bar | | Rebeca1
            0

          Get started with Moz Pro!

          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

          Start my free trial
          Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz API
          • Moz Data
          • STAT
          • Product Updates
          Moz Solutions
          • SMB Solutions
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Authority Checker
          • Link Explorer
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • Brand Authority Checker
          • Local Citation Checker
          • MozBar Extension
          • MozCast
          Resources
          • Blog
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Help Hub
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • How-to Guides
          • Moz Academy
          • API Docs
          About Moz
          • About
          • Team
          • Careers
          • Contact
          Why Moz
          • Case Studies
          • Testimonials
          Get Involved
          • Become an Affiliate
          • MozCon
          • Webinars
          • Practical Marketer Series
          • MozPod
          Connect with us

          Contact the Help team

          Join our newsletter
          Moz logo
          © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
          • Accessibility
          • Terms of Use
          • Privacy

          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.