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?
-
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?
-
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.
-
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.
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
-
Unsolved Why is my website Backlinks Lower on Moz than on SEMRush?
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 | Nov 2, 2023, 5:39 PM | ajegunle1 -
Is Moz more accurate than Ahrefs ?
When I check my this website https://joinpakarmy.com.pk/ on Moz it gives me DA 3
Moz Bar | Aug 6, 2020, 12:12 PM | joinpakarmy234
But when I check it out on Ahrefs, it tells me there is no authority for this site.
So who is more accurate in the result?
thanks0 -
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 | Aug 13, 2018, 7:21 AM | TeamViviRealEstate0 -
Does "Disallow: /xmlrpc.php" in robots.txt affect moz tools ability to fetch DA?
Just checked a website for Domain Authority using Moz' tool, however it returned 1 for DA, which should be unlikely. I have been trying to find the problem and found "Disallow: /xmlrpc.php" in robots.txt. Could this affect Moz' tools ability to get the required data?
Moz Bar | Jul 5, 2017, 2:37 AM | Foli0 -
Moz crawler only crawls one page?!
Hello there, I'm using Moz for a while and I'm very pleased with the tool and community. But for the first time I encountered a problem. We are trying to run a crawler for a client's website but only one page (only the homepage) was crawled. We tried to do a test on a more detailed level (maybe there is something wrong with the homepage). My campaign test's crawl came back for the Producten folder (level deeper than homepage), and it was also only a 1 page crawl with a 200 status. I did look at the robots.txt file now, and it is very restrictive, but there is nothing that I can clearly see that would explain why the crawl isn't working. Hopefully someone can point us at the right direction. Thanks in advance, Jeremy
Moz Bar | Sep 4, 2015, 2:18 PM | mediaxplain.nl0 -
How Does Moz Shoot Whiteboard Fridays?
Okay, sort of a meta question here... My company, a global test preparation company, is looking into new ways to deliver online course content (both pre-recorded and live streaming). Around the office we have looked at dozens of examples of companies that do video presenting or teaching, and then I realized that I watch a great example of high-quality online video every week: Whiteboard Fridays! They look and sound fantastic! Moz team, what are you willing to share re: the setup you use? I'm looking for specific direction about lighting, sound, and equipment. Anything you share would be VERY much appreciated. Thanks!
Moz Bar | Sep 28, 2013, 12:04 AM | ScottShrum
Scott 3-methods-fueled-by-data-and-tools-to-earn-more-and-better-links-whiteboard-friday0