HI Ankit,

Adding a S as you mentioned will produce different results and thus different competition for your SEO campaign. So, if you want to rank higher for 'custom case' create content about a 'custom case' and build links with that anchor text.

In your example, 'custom case' based on the Google Keyword Tool gets 720 searches, whereas 'custom cases' gets 1600.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi KS,

A few more comments for you below.

Does that mean I have got a backlink already?

Once the comment has been approved by the moderator you should have a live link. You can check if it is do follow by using a firexfox plugin such as SEOBook or SEOQuake.

Or do I need to do something else too to make sure Google recognizes that as a backlink?

Not normally. As you mentioned the blogs are already high PR, the search engines shouldn't have any problem finding your links. If the blog is Wordpress, then the webmaster may have already setup a list of pinging sites so the site should be crawled often. That said, if you are concerned that Google hasn't found the link, just follow my advice previously regarding pinging the blog you have commented on.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi KS,

First thing to check - make sure you are using the 'exact match' option over on the left with the Adwords tool, a common oversight is leaving the default (broad) checked. That should help delivery a little more accuracy. However...

Which of these should I trust more?

Neither! You should take your keyword list and run a small paid Google Adword campaign to get a handle on the real search volume.

When you setup the campaign, ensure the content network is turned off under 'Network and Devices' and you use exact match options on your keywords.

Also, give a generous 'Max CPC' to ensure your ads display, and you link to a high quality landing page in the ad so it displays on the first page and you avoid harming your quality score.

Run the campaign for at least 48hours, and then view the number of impressions served. Impressions show how often the ad is displayed - and as you are using exact match keywords, this number is also the amount of times the phrase is searched.

A much more accurate method to get a handle on the search volume.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Andrew

Thank you for the comment KS!

Firstly, I don't know what 'pinging' is and why is it important.

Pinging will notify the search engines of a 'change' to the URL you are submitting.  A lot of the 'lower quality' links often struggle to get found and indexed, so pinging is often used to help get them noticed. If you have authoritative, genuine links, then you needn't ping - the chances are the search engines will find them.

Secondly, Should I go for it?

Pinging links manually one at a time is time consuming, and the time could be better spent elsewhere. That said, you can use a service like http://links2rss.com/ to paste 50 links into a single RSS feed, and then use your pinging service to ping the single RSS feed. This is bordering on the grey hat side of things - so I might get a few thumbs down, but its quite a common practice.

Lastly, what kind of links should I ping regularly?

Low quality links which the search engines might struggle to find - blog comments, forums, articles etc. Although you should be placing less emphasis on acquiring these links as they become less and less beneficial for rankings.

I researched on google and got a feeling that only blogs should be pinged because they are updated regularly. Is that so?

No. Although blog pinging is common (Wordpress has a section to paste a list of ping sites) and good practice, you can ping any website, link or blog.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Andrew

Firstly, I don't know what 'pinging' is and why is it important.

Pinging will notify the search engines of a 'change' to the URL you are submitting.  A lot of the 'lower quality' links often struggle to get found and indexed, so pinging is often used to help get them noticed. If you have authoritative, genuine links, then you needn't ping - the chances are the search engines will find them.

Secondly, Should I go for it?

Pinging links manually one at a time is time consuming, and the time could be better spent elsewhere. That said, you can use a service like http://links2rss.com/ to paste 50 links into a single RSS feed, and then use your pinging service to ping the single RSS feed. This is bordering on the grey hat side of things - so I might get a few thumbs down, but its quite a common practice.

Lastly, what kind of links should I ping regularly?

Low quality links which the search engines might struggle to find - blog comments, forums, articles etc. Although you should be placing less emphasis on acquiring these links as they become less and less beneficial for rankings.

I researched on google and got a feeling that only blogs should be pinged because they are updated regularly. Is that so?

No. Although blog pinging is common (Wordpress has a section to paste a list of ping sites) and good practice, you can ping any website, link or blog.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Andrew

Hi KS,

First thing to check - make sure you are using the 'exact match' option over on the left with the Adwords tool, a common oversight is leaving the default (broad) checked. That should help delivery a little more accuracy. However...

Which of these should I trust more?

Neither! You should take your keyword list and run a small paid Google Adword campaign to get a handle on the real search volume.

When you setup the campaign, ensure the content network is turned off under 'Network and Devices' and you use exact match options on your keywords.

Also, give a generous 'Max CPC' to ensure your ads display, and you link to a high quality landing page in the ad so it displays on the first page and you avoid harming your quality score.

Run the campaign for at least 48hours, and then view the number of impressions served. Impressions show how often the ad is displayed - and as you are using exact match keywords, this number is also the amount of times the phrase is searched.

A much more accurate method to get a handle on the search volume.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Andrew

HI Ankit,

Adding a S as you mentioned will produce different results and thus different competition for your SEO campaign. So, if you want to rank higher for 'custom case' create content about a 'custom case' and build links with that anchor text.

In your example, 'custom case' based on the Google Keyword Tool gets 720 searches, whereas 'custom cases' gets 1600.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Andrew