SEO for compound word derivatives
-
Our company offers services for nonprofit organizations and we are finding that "non profit" and "nonprofit" are both used very frequently in search queries.
I suspect Google will treat the two variations similarly but am looking for something more concrete than my anecdotal experience.
- How does Google treat compound words that are commonly searched for as multiple words?
- Any suggestions on resources or tests to find a concrete answer for "nonprofit"?
-
Google makes semantic level query assumptions by default now- that's part of the function that allows google to suggest queries as you type. To address your question more directly, it depends on the individual terms and whether or not Google is giving complete, partial, or no equivalence to those terms. Non-profit and nonprofit are treated nearly the same in organic ranking- the top results are identical and the remaining results have more variance. You can experiment with this idea and you'll see some of this phenomena.
As for "concrete evidence"- you aren't going to get it. You should study the results of your individual terms' rankings because that's exactly what Google did to weight potential results... at least, it's a part of what they did. They have a vast army of "raters" that look into the relevance of query/results and assign a value to the search engine's success/lack of success. In the end, a load of data is collected in various categorically-structured groups of search terms. Are they using the data attached to these unique categories to craft a more relevant set of results? I don't know if they are, but I find it hard to believe they flush all of that expensive data down the drain just to use an umbrella algorithm to spit out all query results.
In the end, I think you'll find that worrying about the minor difference between the two is wasted time if you're looking for a concrete answer. To avoid the pitfall, stick to a single convention on each individual page, but vary the convention from page to page. When you search one or the other, watch how Google bolds the alternate terms in the list of results.. Compare the 1st page results of the two alternate terms.. are you seeing a pattern? With the other components of SEO on-track, it effectively won't matter at all.
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
-
Apostrophes impact on SEO
I have a question about the use of Apostrohes in the text of your site for your keyword. Most of the info I have found says in most cases it does not matter, but it depends. Most of the info about this issue I have found is a few years old. I am leaning towards not using it at all to make it easier for everyone writing for the website to always do it the same way. Here is an example: Lawyer’s Lawyers' Lawyers Does it matter if I use the apostrophe?
Keyword Research | | fersu0 -
If I insert a "stop" word into a long tail keyword, will it break it up?
I'm in the legal industry, and a lot of the long tail keywords I'm finding are search queries that are pinpointed for my location. As a result, I come up with [subject] + [location] as good keywords... for example: "subpoena duces tecum new york." (basically it's a subpoena, just the fancy name). However, I have no clue how to use something like this in a sentence....if I say "subpoena duces tecum IN new york" does the "in" break up the keyword, or is "in" just a stop word that doesn't affect the keyword? Countless examples of similar keywords "Car accident new york" etc. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | cgs2303 -
Topic pages - Word count & other insights
Hello everyone, It's my first time asking a question here, so I hope I follow the rules. Let me know if my question is not properly asked, formatted etc. Question: What's the min # of words we should have on topic page (related links)? Also, let me know if you have any additional advice with regards to topic pages strategy. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | Velvetmonkey
Sophie0 -
Is KEI metric still commonly used by SEOs
I'd like to ask about the KEI, is it used by now? and is it really matters ? I guess # of results by Google is not a good metric to decide if the keyword is good or not? I'd really appreciate your inputs
Keyword Research | | Yaddly0 -
Keyword ranking by word order
If we have a keyword with 2 words like "SSL Audit". Will it rank in the same position the other way "Audit SSL" ?
Keyword Research | | Cistrust.com0 -
Selecting Key words for my SEO strategy
Hey team! I fell like this could sound very silly but... How can I find out which would be the best new keywords to focus my SEO effots on? How do I know which keywords I should be trying to rank for? Thank you!
Keyword Research | | StoryScout1 -
What is the best way to grow local seo outreach?
For example, I live in new york and most of my keywords, page titles and meta are featured for new york but I want to expand into new jersey. Should I add create new content with those keywords, page titles and meta (blog posts, new pages)? Thats what I am doing but I wanted to see what the pros say. Thanks guys!
Keyword Research | | ayesroc0 -
Capitals in Title tags and meta descriptions and their effect on SEO
It often the case that a page of serps will show up very similar title tags eg Cheap Widgets | Widgetsrus.com format, written partly for humans and partly for SEO.. Although against Googles best practice and indeed a violation of their adwords policy would using in CAPS in title tags reduce ranking (whilst increasing visibility and CTR)?
Keyword Research | | seanmccauley0