Do you track both plural and singular variations of your keywords?
-
Howdy,
In trying to make the most of the keyword tracking slots we get with the SEOmoz tool our discussion turned to the importance of tracking both variations of search terms that could be plural or singular.
The example is that we run a local business search database so we target search terms like "chicago pet stores" and "chicago pet store", however the language of our site almost always uses the plural version of the business category.
On one hand we want to know exactly how we rank for variations of search terms, but on the other, with the number of categories we have we could be tracking thousands upon thousands if we included every variation ("pet store chicago", "pet stores in chicago", etc.)
So what say ye fellow optimizers? Is it worth tracking variations of search terms or do you find that Google is smart enough in coalescing the intent of similar search variants that tracking against the most commonly searched one is enough?
Thank you all!
-
The only concern I have about getting to granular is time. Things like the 80/20 rule come to mind. You don't want to chase down minor details when there are big fish getting away. With that said, there is a lot of traffic involved with plural vs singular keywords. Your time is well spent!
-
From watching the SERPs and visitor behavior in my niche... I believe that singular queries tend to be informational.... plural queries seem to be transactional.
-
I have a subscription at both SEOMOZ & Raventools.
Read up on raven and you will see why, especially when it comes to managing many many keywords and staying on top of reporting.
-
I completely agree with you, so much so in fact that some people say I go too far with how granular I get in my data collection/analytics. This question was ultimately a spot check to see if I was going too far, or not far enough.
Thank you for your insight!
-
My problem is that I already have over 100 keywords being tracked for one site and I'm getting ready to launch 2 more, this could get cumbersome!
SEO is highly competitive. High quality SEO involves a lot of work. If it was easy, then everyone would do it
It's up to you to determine if it is worthwhile to track both. My answer is yes, it is. If you are here at SEOmoz, you clearly have a desire to implement industry best practices. SEO is purely a competition. Think Rocky and his opponent slugging it out. You are either prepared to stand toe-to-toe with your competitors and fight for rankings, or you are not. If you want to be ranked at the top, you need to EARN the position and that involves a commitment to do all the work involved.
This is my approach to SEO. Not everyone agrees
-
Yeah the search volume differs greatly, the question is just whether the page I have will rank more or less the same for the plural vs singular and if not would it be so different that it's worth tracking both.
My problem is that I already have over 100 keywords being tracked for one site and I'm getting ready to launch 2 more, this could get cumbersome!
-
This is my issue. In many cases I rank equally well for both singular and plural so it feels like a waste to use one of my keyword slots tracking both when instead I could use it to track another keyword entirely.
I guess for the time being I'll keep tracking both.
-
Agreed, i always check both singular and plural. Not only for traffic reasons but for difficulty as well!
-
For me it depends on the search results in question and also the keyword volumes in the Google Keyword Tool. More often than not, in my industry I find different results (and rankings) for the singular and plural keywords so I do keep track. It is also baffling to me that I can rank #3 for the singular version but #8 for the plural variation of the keyword. Or Google Places will show up for the singular version but not the plural!!
I also use Advanced Web Ranking to automate ranking reports so keeping track of rankings is no problem at all.
-
Do you track both plural and singular variations of your keywords?
I track both the singular and plural versions. It makes a difference. Pick a keyword such as "childrens book" and then search for "childrens books". You will see the results vary. In some instances, there is a huge difference.
According to Google's Keyword tool:
Apple - 83 million global monthly searches
Apples - 6 million global monthly searches.
To use a more relevant example:
Chicago pet store - 5400 global monthly searches
Chicago pet stores - 6600 global monthly searches
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
-
MoZ & Other Keyword Tools
Hi There, 1- Does MoZ provide the data on “which keyword searchers are searching in a particular market”, so that I can make a better decision regarding my own keywords?If MoZ does not do this what other best tool is out there in market for this particular purpose? 2- Suppose I decide some keywords for my site and start doing optimization for them. "Does MoZ tell me “how much traffic my those keywords are receiving with the passage of time”. If MoZ does not do this what other best tool is out there in market for this particular purpose? 3- Does Moz give "data on competitors keyword activity also"? If MoZ does not do this what other best tool is out there in market for this particular purpose? Hope somebody with concrete knowledge and experience will enlighten me. Cheers Tanveer
Moz Pro | | Sequelmed0 -
New to Moz, need some probably basic answers about Keywords, Linking, Competitors and General SEO
Hi, So I have quite a lot of data colelcted about my site now, regarding keyword research, page crawling and competitor research ect. But I find myself second guessing myself about what I have done and what to do next. I have done basic research for as many relevant keywords I could think of to my site, including branded and non branded terms. If the main competitive keywords for my niche are very competitive, shall I start doing more research for long tail keywords and only try to rank for them? Does is matter how many keywords I am doing research for? Does is matter how many keywords I try to optimise for each webpage? Are the amount of branded keywords I am researching skewing my results? As they are all ranked #1, but nearly all of the non branded keywords are much further down the list... Once I have decided what keywords are worth trying to ranking for for each page, are the techniques to actually rank more highly for them - Title, H1 Tag, Description, Meta Data, Fresh Content and using the keywords on the page? Or are there more techniques I haven't heard of? Under Keyword Rankings - I noticded that some of my keywords are directing to specific pages, like "Cavity Waxes" is directing to the URL ending in .com/cavity-waxes - How do you assign the keywords im researching to specific URLs? - Or does Moz do it automatically? As most of my keywords seem to be unassigned to any URL, is that because they are not ranking highly enough? How do I best use the data collected through Moz? Good practices? Techniques? Tips and Tricks? What is the best practice for finding potential link partners and asking them for mutual linking? Techniques for finding partners that are likely to link with us, but still provides link juice. I must apologise for this long-winded set of questions, but these are troubling me! Any help would be greatly appreciated, Kind regards, Max Johnson
Moz Pro | | BiltHamber10 -
Can we scan for Competitor keywords with Moz Pro?
Hi All, Can we scan for Competitor keywords with Moz Pro? Wanted to know if we can check all keywords a site is ranking for... Thanks
Moz Pro | | jomin740 -
Help me to know why are all pages not being tracked by the Moz tool for on-page optimization reports?
The On-page Optimization report that the Moz tool shows, is not tracking all the pages from my website. I know this because it isn't showing a ranking for all pages on my website. Is there a particular reason why this is happening? It is important for me to know details of all pages, else it does not give me a comprehensive picture of what's going on in SEO.
Moz Pro | | jslusser0 -
Keywords with a city suffix
Hi Pros, Here is our question / dilemma... Context/Background _Our company has 41 offices around the US and Europe; _ _We (our SEO) teams results are based on someone in a specific postcode/zipcode opening Chrome/IE/FF and searching using Google/Bing/Yahoo _ _(keyword) + (city) _ i.e. Ice cream Manhattan or Computer services Manhattan Our methodology is - (a) Choose an office (zipcode), identify the territory city names required for that Office's SEO goals. (b) begin to develop the strategy and execute (c) wait 1-2 months and test Question Using SEOmoz we are not sure HOW we could even begin to track the keywords?
Moz Pro | | neuralcorp0 -
I need to get a page in the top 3 Google results for my keyword "teaching jobs" but am struggling to do so! Can anyone help?
I'm trying to get this page http://www.eteach.com/teaching-jobs to rank as the top search result on Google with the keyword "teaching jobs" but it seems to be number 5 in the results! My competitors are totally kicking my arse on getting this page to be above my website. I've got the keywords in there, I have the right content and I have links, what more can I do to make it rank as number 1! Help please!! If anyone has an SEO check list of things I need to make sure I do on my pages for them to rank in the top 3 results then that would be really handy!
Moz Pro | | Eteach_Marketing0 -
Can SEOMOZ Pro suggest me the best keyword to work for?
Hi, how SEOMOZ PRO can suggest me the best keyword to rank easily in the first position of Google's SERP? Is there a tool to find good keyword and got some ideas? Regards
Moz Pro | | jadlib0 -
Keyword ranking tool
Hello, What is best practice for knowing if a keyword is too difficult to try to rank for. i understand the keyword difficulty tool in seoMOZ, but am unsure of how it actually relates to if I should attempt to rank for the keyword. Is there a differential people use such as if a site has a Page Authority of 60 we will not try to rank for a keyword that has a keyword difficulty ranking of 40?
Moz Pro | | digitalops0