How To Optimize For Same Word, Different Spelling
-
Hi all.
Just wondering what peoples stance is on using multiple variations of keywords on a webpage - those keywords that have the same meaning and search intent, but are just spelt differently.
i.e. 'woodscrews' and 'wood screws' (the latter has a significantly higher search volume)
You could approach the webpage in 4 different ways;
1. Use ONLY 'wood screws' on-page, and in the page <title><br />2. Use ONLY 'woodscrews' on-page, and in the page <title><br />3. Use BOTH 'wood screws' and 'woodscrews' on-page, and BOTH in the page <title><br />4. Use BOTH 'wood screws' and 'woodscrews' on-page, but ONLY one variation in the page <title></p> <p>We've run some tests in the past but there were never any clear takeaways, a mixed bag of results really.</p> <p>Also, If they are considered the same keyword by Google why are the ranking positions always different for each variation?</p> <p>I'm not sure there' a specific answer to this, just interested to hear peoples thoughts really.</p> <p>Many thanks in advance!</p> <p>Lee.</p></title>
-
Many thanks, Donna.
I'm seeing things completely different to you. Screwfix does use both variations on-page (METAs and content). They also rank #1 for both variations.
Strange! I am searching from the UK, but the ranking Screwfix pages should be the same regardless.
Lee
-
You will rank for both, once your site has earned enough authority on the topic. Google appears to be interpreting the terms as synonymous. You're likely seeing variations cause they (Google) are perpetually testing.
If I search for "woodscrews" today, only one page 1 search result (Screwfix) uses "woodscrews" in their title tag and on-page content. The nine others do NOT and yet still manage to rank on page 1 for the term.
You may see different results, but my point is, it may be less of a conundrum than you think. If you want to try to rank for both variations, you're going to have to out-optimize all competitors, including the 1 (Screwfix) that does manage to rank for a different spelling of the term. Screwfix has not used the spaced version of the term (wood screws) even once on the page. When you take into consideration EGOL's points, that may be a problem for you.
Also of note, Screwfix does NOT rank on page 1 for "wood screws" (with the space). So they really have traded off one for the other.
-
Fair commments, Egol.. I can certainly see the logic.
The problem is that people use both variants.. so we want to rank for both!
It’s a conundrum
-
For me, there are two issues.
A) If one of the variants is incorrect or ignorant then my visitors will see it. This is a concern of people who run formal or academic sites. Some people might not link to me If I don't know how to spell some of the most commonly used words on my site.
B) Incorrect or ignorant usage could be a slight deduction from Google.
-
Many thanks, Egol.
Do you think that using both variants on page would cause any issues?
All the best.
Lee
-
I usually go to Google.com and do a few searches. That usually reveals what variants of the query are being used by people in their content and how Google will respond to the different variants.
In the case of "woodscrews"... Google says....
**About 3,990,000 results (0.54 seconds) **
Did you mean: wood screws
Now, I know what most vendors are using and see that Google will offer "wood screws" as the preferred variant. So, I would write all of my content using that variant. I usually agree with Google's preferred variant from my personal experience. However, if their preferred variant was an incorrect usage or an ignorant usage, then I will think about how that would fit into my website. But, since my websites are written in a formal context, I almost always go with proper, formal language.
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
-
Posting same content to different high authority websites
Let's say 1 article piece is highly relevant to multiple states and we pitch this article across the different domains in those states. Each article piece will be tweaked to localize the content. I understand that Google devalues links coming from low quality, websites that are spun up, but what about links that are basically the same content (but localized), across different high authority domains?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | imjonny1230 -
Sitemap: unique sitemap or different sitemaps by Country
Hi guys, i have a question about sitemaps. We are doing an international site, e.x. www.offers.com for landing page and www.offers.com/br for brazil, www.offers.com/it for italy, etc... i don't if we should do an unique sitemap for all countries or separate sitemaps by country, e.x.: unique sitemap: www.offers.com/sitemap.xml - including all sitemaps www.offers.com/br/sitemap.xml - sitemap for brazil market only. Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | thekiller990 -
Moz page optimization score issue, have a score of 95, but can get to 99 if I ad my keyword basically twice in the url.
Hello, I have a keyword for lack of providing too much info we will say my keyword is laptop-bags. Now we have a /laptop-bags/ page and inside that page **/laptop-bags/leather-shoulder/ ** We got a score of 95 for that page. Now I got a score of 99 when I changed it to **/laptop-bags/leather-shoulder-laptop-bags/ ** The way Bigcommerce handles is it will use the product category title in the url, page title and site links, to me it feels like it's spammy, as well as on my /laptop-bags/ page, I now have 18 keywords of " laptop bags " on that page when before it was 12, since I added laptop-bags to all 6 categories inside the laptop-bags page. How would you handle this, use the /keyword/ then /longtail-keyword/ in full or would using /laptop-bag/leather-shoulder/ still rank for leather shoulder laptop bags? I've asked this before and was told to use whatever sounded better to the user, but now moz is telling me different.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Deacyde0 -
Is it OK to dynamically serve different content to paid and non-paid traffic from the same URL?
Hi Moz! We're trying to serve different content to paid and non-paid visitors from the same URL. Is this black hat? Here's the reason we want to do this -- we're testing a theory that paid ads boost organic rankings. This is something we saw happen to a client and we want to test this further. But we have to have a different UX that's more sparse and converts better for paid. Thanks for reading!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Horizon_SEO0 -
Optimizing for Branded and Unbranded terms - ecommerce
Hi, To date, we have gone with optimizing our website for branded search terms - we have done this by including the manufacturer + product name in the links to the product, product urls, page titles, h1's etc... Now, we are looking at optimising also for non branded terms - but all of our products are already optimized as above and I'm a bit lost as to how we would proceed with this process - my thoughts are: Create the generic categories, e.g, "Decorative Mirrors" But then, if they link through to the existing mirrors which are optimised for branded search, how do I go about it? Do I create a duplicate of the product and remove all the branded terms in the page title, h1, url and create new content for it? E.g., the same product but available twice... Doesnt seem logical from a user perspective but I cant think of another way to do this?? Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs20100 -
Optimizing for Venice.
I had a client ask me why his website wasn't popping up for the local places results when he typed "plumbing". There were a group of google local places and my question is, how would I optimize for these with the Venice update. Any strategy? I didn't have an answer. Also "sewer repair" brings in great results. Do I optimize for the keyword sewer repair? Any suggestions would help out greatly. Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GregMontoya
Greg0 -
Why do SERP Results ( Rankings ) differ from country to country ?
Hi, I have been doing seo for this client based in Sri lanka for almost 8 months now. Since we started SEO we had set up geographic target setting to UK through google webmaster tools. At the moment Site is completely ranking higher on google uk & other countries except Sri Lanka . On Google.lk site doesn't even come within 1st 5 pages for keywords which are ranked on1st page in other countries ? What do you think about this ? How does it happen ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pyxle0 -
Different pages ranking for search terms, often irrelevant.
Website: www.templatemonster.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | templatemonster
Problem: Positions dropped while pages which were ranking previously disappeared from top 100 and now different - often completely irrelevant - pages are ranking. Examples:
Search term: Joomla Templates
Previous Position: 8
Current Position: 35
Previously Ranked Page: http://www.templatemonster.com/joomla-templates.php
Currently Ranked Page: http://www.templatemonster.com/logo-templates.php Similar situation with the following search terms: virtuemart templates, virtuemart themes, prestashop templates, prestashop themes, magento themes, zencart templates, zencart themes, zen cart templates, zen cart themes When: according to the Google Analytics (drop in visitors stats) this happened on July, 2nd Preconditions: we had 45 minutes downtime on July 2-nd - but could this 45 mins have had such disastrous results?
No redirects or canonical URL were used which could lead to such change of ranking page.
No changes in the site's informational structure and design.
In webmaster tools (inbound links report) we saw a website yesterday which had over 800,000 links pointing to our domain - http://moviebestwatch.com/ - and today this site is NOT found in Webmaster Tools report! Also, site is down, domain is quite new (how could it have possibly developed 800,000 pages in such a short time?) and whois is privacy protected. Is this some dirty trick from competitors - could it have possibly influenced our positions? Still, what I completely fail to understand - how could a page like http://www.templatemonster.com/logo-templates.php be the top ranking page for 'Joomla templates' if there is: not a single mention of the word 'Joomla' on the page (or source code), i.e. the page is completely irrelevant to the search term not a single link with 'Joomla templates' anchor text pointing to that page, neither external nor internal PS. No similar changes in other search engines noticed. Also, the pages in question have been re-spidered July 4th and cache shows the right pages, i.e. it is not that Googlebot has seen logotypes page instead of Joomla templates page. I checked any possible reason I could think of (see "Preconditions") but still have no clue - what is going on?1