Singular vs plural SEO
-
Hi everyone,
OK I've been looking at the Google adwords keyword tool and it's thrown some of my On-page SEO into question (everything said here are examples, I haven't used any real life terms or figures).
Lets say my page is about "Green Apples", let's say the keyword tool shows that the singular version "Green Apple" gets more searches (as an example).
Should I optimize for the singular or the plural?
Also lets say my title tag for that page is "Green Apples | Apples Galore UK" would Google/SEOmoz count that as an optimisation for the singular "Green Apple" or do the search engines take the title literally and don't differenciate between singular and plurals?
Thanks in advance everyone!
Regards,
Ash
-
"the plural seems to un-natural to fit in the content, or title"
In that case, I wouldn't use it. I can't speak for Portugese, but in English, in the last 2 or more years I can't remember any cases I've had where Google doesn't recognise the difference between plural and non-plural anyway.
What happens when you search for the keyword in plural? Do non-plural results show up? And vice-versa? Trying that out should help.
-
Hello Martim,
Did you get a response to your question?
I actually have the same problem... any feedbacks would be great
Julien
-
Hey everyone! This is actually the first time I ever posted a question here on MOZ! Guess I was (still am) embarrassed by being an SEO Noob!
That being said, I really have to get some input on this matter and i was wondering if you guys might be able to help.
I'm optimizing a page for a wedding venue in Portugal. Currently, according to google trends the Plural - Venues for weddings, scores considerably better than the Singular, Venue for weddings (this was researched in Portuguese written terms of course). Despite this, i'm leaning towards an optimization for the Singular term, because the plural seems to un-natural to fit in the content, or title. I managed to fit the Plural in the description but i've read that it hasn't influenced rank directly for a while.
Currently my title tag reads: Venue for Weddings | Name of the Venue. I really can't find anyway that it makes since to me in the Plural... and i feel like if i was a user, i would rather click on the singular term cause it just makes a lot more sense. But my opinion is most probably biased by the fact the i understand that using the plural term will be solemnly and SEO effort to rank higher for a term that has more average search per month.
My question is: In the current state of search algorithms, will an optimization for the singular term, still get me some rank on the plural key phrase?
Let me know what you think about this please, and thank you in advance for your time.
Most Respectfully,
Martim Coutinho dos Santos
-
be careful when optimizing for both, you might end up in a situation where it will look like keyword spamming. I personally wouldn't optimize for both in the page title, just the primary. And then optimize for the secondary and the primary one in the H1,H2 to Hwhatever..
You don't want to look like a spammer.
-
You can optimise titles for both. It's best to have your prime keyphrase near the beginning of the title - and make sure the title is not too long.
The way you suggested does make it look like you're just stuffing the keywords in for the sake of it though...again it depends on your keywords but something like this would look more natural with the downside of not having one of the phrases nearer the start:
"Green Apple seller: the best Green Apples"
-
Thanks for the excellent answer Alex! I think I'm going to go for the plural as it is more accurate to the content on the page.
Regards,
Ash
-
Thanks for the answer Rene! Is there a way to optimise page titles for both? For example "Green Apple | Green Apples | Apples Galore UK" (don't ask how I came up with a site about apples as an example, it was the first thing that came to my head) seems a bit pointless?
Or would optimising for both feature only in the pages content?
Regards,
Ash
-
Google / Bing will understand that your plural keyword is probably the same. But it will rank you better if you optimize for the exact match key-phrase. So my advise would be to keep focus on the one with the most searches and mention the other a few times. That way you get both, but make sure that the language is something that makes sense and reads well.
-
Make sure the language you use is natural. You might be able to rule out one or the other if it wouldn't be natural in your content.
Advice I've read in the past has recommended to optimise for both, though it depends on the term of course; some might be better as plural, some might not. Compare the search results for each and if one is more competitive than the other. Each might bring up completely different results, I think one example I read was that the singular showed e-commerce sites whereas the plural showed descriptive sites - I can't remember the example that was used.
Optimising for the plural is more likely to help with the singular than the other way around, but I think Google can usually tell they're related e.g. www.google.co.uk/search?q=red+bull+sticker - in more cases a longer tail keyphrase will probably show for both plural and singular, even if you just optimise for one of them.
-
I would optimize for singular if keyword tool indicates more searches for that.
On the other hand I presume search engines become better and better in recognizing singular vs plural and consolidating search results accordingly. So in the long term maybe this wouldn't/shouldn't matter?
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
-
Using Brand value for SEO: Can we use keyword with brand name?
Hi Moz community, I am curious to know this. Let's say there is a brand value for a company. It has it's own popularity that it's been mentioned across the internet and social media directly with brand name without their service or industry keyword. Now if the company started promoting themselves like keyword along with their brand name, will it help them to rank for that keyword. For example, Moz is already famous, now they want to rank for "SEO" and related keywords, so they started calling themselves on internet "Moz SEO"; will this fetch them in ranking for keyword SEO? My ultimate question is, using primary keyword along with brand name will work out in ranking for that primary keyword or not? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
LocalBusiness vs. Physician
I have a physician who is a client and I'm wondering: is there any advantage to having their schema.org as "LocalBusiness" vs. Physician? Clearly as Physician is a sublisting, it should be fine. But I'm just curious. Other than future-proofing is there any "real-time" advantage? Thanks for any insight!
Algorithm Updates | | Titan5520 -
Pdfs for SEO - benefits, downfalls and promotional methods
Hi fellow Mozzers, We're just in the middle of relaunching our website (a design agency), and I had a few questions re: SEO of our service keywords. The designers want the site to seem light on content, despite my advice that this would reduce the terms we can rank for. With that in mind, I was going to include advice pages that can be found via the site map, site search or text links but aren't promoted via the top level or second level nav. Another alternative I was going to explore was using pdfs for design case studies, so the site would feature a light case study, but with a more in-depth pdf available if wanted. I have located numerous articles highlighting how best to optimise pdfs, but I have a few queries aside from the technical standpoint. So: is this the best way to getting round the issue of keeping the site 'light' on content? are there stats that show CTRs on pdf pages over HTML? as well as optimising the pdf content and promoting them on our social media channel, is there a benefit from including them on the likes of Scribd, Edocr and so on (from either an SEO or simply from a promotional viewpoint, or both) Hopefully that's all clear! Nick
Algorithm Updates | | themegroup0 -
Seperate Blog vs Blog in Site
Hello, When is it useful to have a blog as an external entity, versus a blog embedded in an ecommerce site. My thoughts lean towards making it part of the site to build new content, but I'm open to suggestions.
Algorithm Updates | | BobGW0 -
Increasing Brands/Products thus increasing pages - improve SEO?
We curently have 5 brands on our website and roughly 200 pages. Does increasing the number of products you stock and thus increasing the number of pages improve your SEO?
Algorithm Updates | | babski0 -
How to do SEO for Google places.New trends and tips
How to do SEO for Google places.New trends and tips .Most clients wants their biz in Google places in First page .
Algorithm Updates | | innofidelity0 -
Youtube, Video SEO, & my site
For our business we are building a collection of videos ranging including product info, how-to's, and some funny content. My understanding is that if you embed these onto my site from youtube you don't get any credit for these videos on the web site even if submitting a video sitemap. My thinking is to post these videos to youtube and to host them on our own site and submit a video sitemap including the videos on our site. We would change the name, description, etc. on youtube vs. what's o our web site. Question is - is this the best strategy? Do I get penalized for duplicate content? They are important for both the social aspects of youtube and the content vaue of our web site.
Algorithm Updates | | uwaim20120 -
Is it hurting my seo ranking if robots.txt is forbidden?
robots.txt is forbidden - I have read up on what the robots.txt file does and how to configure it but what about if it is not able to be accessed at all?
Algorithm Updates | | Assembla0