Stop List and Keywords
-
I've came across a suggested list of words that google will ignore in your content, if this is correct and one of our main keywords is one of those words, will it lose effectiveness?
We are trying to get #1 SERP for "Self Tan" and it seems "Self" is one of the words ignored - so should we just be focusing on Tan?
Any tips / advice would be great!
-
I went to that URL listing the stop words in the Internet Archive, and it's had the same content for at least five years now. Years ago, Google did have a notice when it ignored common words, but I don't remember it as being this restrictive even a long time ago. I would consider that list vastly outdated.
Here's some information from Google itself:
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861
Words that are commonly used, like 'the,' 'a,' and 'for,' are usually ignored (these are called stop words). But there are even exceptions to this exception. The search
- [ the who ] likely refers to the band; the query [ who ] probably refers to the World Health Organization -- Google will not ignore the word 'the' in the first query.
-
Does Google ignores the word an ? A query for "seo" and "an seo" produces different results.
-
Even though I can see why search engines would find ways around have to deal with these words too much (or attach a lot of value to them) I think the list is either too large, or nonsense altogheter. Prime example would be the inclusion of the word 'plus' on the list. A query for the keywords 'google plus' returns quite different results that a query for 'google'.
-
Hi Theo,
Well this could be mis-information which is why I wanted to check but I've come across it in a few places;
http://www.link-assistant.com/seo-stop-words.html
I've only recently got involved with this company and we're work on our link backs (and especially the anchor text!).
Thanks
Chris
-
Is this a public list? If so, I'd love to have a look.
I don't see why Google would ignore words in the first place, and even more so why they would ignore the word 'self'. In theory I could see why the would ignore words like 'a' or 'the', but not 'self'.What reason does the author of the list state for Google's exclusion of the keywords on it?
As a side note, it is always wise to optimize both incoming anchor text and on-page optimization for closely related variations of words (such as 'self tan' and 'tan' in your case).
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
-
Keyword Research Help
Hi all, My website is www.bruadair.com which is a luxury 7 bedroom villa in Barbados primary suited for large groups and weddings , using googles adword keyword tool i have been trying to establish some long tail keywords that i could include in my website. However i am finding it extremely difficult to find any long tail keywords (such as: Luxury 7 bedroom Villa Barbados ) that are receiving any local or global searches, it seems that there are only extremely competitive keywords receiving traffic. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how i can find effective keywords? With this type of website is it really as likely to be able to rank high due to the pure amount of keyword competition? I would really appreciate any help given as i am really struggling with my keyword research 😞 Thank you very much!!
Keyword Research | | Tmgale0 -
Keyword In Page Title
Broad Keyword Usage in Page Title Easyfix <dl> <dt>Page title</dt> <dd>"The Sea Trout Inn in South Devon, Near Totnes - Luxury Bed and Breakfast and Restaurant - Contact Us"</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>Search engines consider the title element to be the most important place to identify keywords and associate the page with a topic and/or set of terms. SEOmoz's correlation research has also shown that rankings are heavily influenced by keyword usage in the title tag.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Employ the keyword in the page title, preferrably as the first words in the element.</dd> <dd>The keyword is Hotels Totnes, how can I put this in a page title without it looking stupid ?</dd> </dl>
Keyword Research | | Stoz0 -
Keyword Analysis Tool
Can someone please enlighten me on the Keyword Analysis tool Matrix. Does Domain Linking refer to the number of links back to that domain as a whole? Also why is it that a page with a lower page ranking can be way ahead of one with a domain ranking that is way higher or vice-a -versa? What is a good number to go after? what is actually attainable? Thanks
Keyword Research | | nooneoconnor0 -
Keyword research
i am trying to figure out what would be good keywords to optimize for an orthodontist. i looked up the keywords "his city + orthodontist" or " his city + braces" and the google adword tool tells me there are no monthly searches for those terms. i am not sure what i can optimize for if no one is searching for the most obvious keywords.
Keyword Research | | dad7more0 -
Keywords google takes into account
hello MOzzers, I know some words are not as important whenGoogle indexes or crawls ex the word "the" etc. I am curios what weightage google places on the word " google" when people search. Silly question?? maybe hee hee, but I would like to know. Its been bugging me. Thank you so much, V
Keyword Research | | vijayvasu0 -
How to choose Keywords
Am starting a company and in the process of developing the website. I would like to get a head start on content and want to know the best way to choose keywords and tips on how to write optimized content.
Keyword Research | | jclubb0 -
Do you use broad match or exact match on Adwords Keyword Tool when doing keyword research?
I wasn't sure whether to classify this as a discussion or a question. I'd love "the right answer" but I'm not sure if we're going to get one... Let's try. When you use the Adwords Keyword Tool for doing keyword research, do you use the numbers from "broad match" or "exact match" when comparing relative search volume of keywords? (And yes, I know the numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt, but when it comes down to it, you're using the numbers to compare and come to conclusions regarding the best keyword to use - so which match type gives you the data you're looking for?) To be a little more specific - when you select "exact match" for, let's say the keyword "baking supplies", is that telling you how many people searched for that phrase within quotes <"baking supplies">, or how many people searched for only <baking supplies="">, as opposed to that word within a phrase <baking supplies="" stores="">or with the words reversed <supplies baking="">?</supplies></baking></baking> Based on some keyword research we had done a year ago where any phrase reversals like <water bottles="">and <bottles water="">were coming out with the exact same numbers, even when it wasn't so intuitive that there would be the same search volume, we came to the conclusion - with the tentative suggestion of the SEOMoz staff on the old Q & A - that broad match would include all instances of the keywords in reverse order, so if you wanted to know how many people were searching for <water bottles="">only, you needed to use exact match. </water></bottles></water> That's what we did for about a year (I also think I saw Rand mention that somewhere in a presentation slide recently, although I could be mistaken and I don't recall exactly where it was to check it up) and then based on a recent forum discussion I had where someone was questioning that premise, I did another check with two KW reversals and while <water bottles="">and <bottles water="">still give the same number, <baking supplies="">and <supplies baking="">do not. </supplies></baking></bottles></water> So I'm left with a big question here as to what the best policy is. Google Adwords Help is very vague on what the match type means in the tool (it seems to be talking about only your settings for your campaigns). So - any input after this long saga? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | debi_zyx0 -
Duplicated string in the google keyword tool
Is it possible that the google keyword tool is wrong? It's the first time I realize that for many keywords the google keyword tool reports a big volume of searchs for a keyword as if it were tiped two times. In some cases, as the attached image, it's the same volume, in other cases is even bigger the one with the duplicated string What should I think of that, that, "champagne champagne" has really 4 million searchs? if champagnechampagne.com were an available domain name, should it be a good idea for a microsite? Thank you! t9Jwn.png
Keyword Research | | gvnns0