Plural vs singular keyword usage - on-page optimization
-
The on-page report card appears to include both plural and singular versions of keywords in reporting the keywords within the body, which results in a keyword stuffing warning.
My question is, is it truly keyword spamming to use over 15 instances of a keyword that is spread across plural and singular versions of the keyword? If keywords are lumped together this way by Google's algorithms, why do pages rank differently for singular and plural versions of the same keyword?
-
Great answers here.
Keep in mind the idea of "keyword stuffing" is a fluid concept. A well-written Wikipedia article may use the same keyword 60 times without being flagged for stuffing.
Context is key. If it makes sense to use your keywords multiple times than it's usually fine. The biggest violators that we usually see are in the title tag "Buy Cheap Florida Homes - Florida Home Finder - Your Best Florida Home Broker" - ouch!
As for plurals, Google will rank different pages differently based on what they perceive as searcher intent. I don't know of any hard and fast rules here - some plurals are considered synonymous with the singular version, while other times it can make a difference in ranking.
-
Nice Article, Eliathah
-
replace about 10 of those with synonyms - less is better. make sure everything else lines up, file name, title tags, h1, internal anchor texts, etc.
-
Nathan,
15 repeats is a bit excessive but then again your question about why Google in ranking the terms differently is one I asked myself a couple of times now. I use singular and plural version of a word for one of my websites. The search volume for both is not the same. The plural version is a bit lower then the singular one.
Still if you optimize your page for the plural version the singular one should be taken into consideration because in my case the singular version of the word is part of the plural (minicamping and minicampings). The problem is in the fact that these words match for the biggest part.
I would suggest reducing the number of times the word(s) is/are repeated by at least 5 no matter how big the content is, unless it is completely natural off course. That all depends on the words you are using I guess.
Hope this helps
kind regards
Jarno
-
I guess it depends on the length of the content. Typically, 15 occurrences is excessive, even if it alternated between the singular and plural versions. I would suggest developing your content around keyword themes using many variants, not just the singular and plural versions.
here's a blog post i did on the subject of keyword theming - http://searchsolve.blogspot.com/2012/10/developing-content-around-keyword.html
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
-
Target multiple keywords on homepage?
Hello. I've got a situation in which I could use some help. A client is in the business of auto parts for European cars. He is VERY stubborn in wanting his homepage to rank 1st page for a keyword for each car brand, for example: audi autoparts bmw autoparts mercedes benz autoparts jaguar autoparts Basically, 15 keywords (one per brand) in total. How would you guys handle this? I can't seem to find a natural way to optimize a homepage for all these keywords at once. I've suggested landing pages for each brand/keyword, but he won't accept it. Is there anyway to do this or will this be a dispute with my client to convince him about the landing pages idea? Thanks a lot!
Keyword Research | | EduardoRuiz0 -
Identifying Keywords - Longtail
I need some clarification as to how exactly keywords work. I learned that I should focus on more specifically targeted long-tail keywords. However I am uncertain of how this actually works. Say I decide to use the longtail keyword "online dyslexia test for children". Will my page only be found by people when they enter that exact search term or will it also be found when people search for any of the other terms containing the same words? For example like all the phrases below: free online dyslexia test
Keyword Research | | EJDekkers
online dyslexia test
online dyslexia test children
dyslexia test online
dyslexia test
dyslexia testing
dyslexia test for children
dyslexia tests for children
free dyslexia test for children
test for dyslexia in children
dyslexia online test
testing for dyslexia in children
free online dyslexia test for children
free dyslexia test
online test for dyslexia in children
online dyslexia test free
dyslexia tests online
online dyslexia testing
test for dyslexia for children
how to test for dyslexia in children online
online testing for dyslexia
dyslexia online test for children
child dyslexia test
dyslexia test online free
free dyslexia test online
how do you test for dyslexia in children Also if I have a page that I optimize for "online dyslexia test free" can I create another page for "free dyslexia test online" or will this be creating competition? In other words are these both unique keywords that will independently rank. Last question about keywords is are they still important and what is the search volume you should be targeting with your keywords. (Allot of my long tail keywords only have around 20 monthly US searches) Thanks! Joy0 -
Difference in Keywords and Anchor Text ?
Sorry i am noob here: I thought both are same but when i see GSA tutorials i found that both are different. If suppose my keywords is black german shoes than what is my anchor text will be. Also anchor text isdifferent like generice keywords click here, find more etc. Please give explanation.
Keyword Research | | chandubaba0 -
Google keyword rankings
I show a MON icon (it looks like a calendar page) for all my google rankings. The icon is not clickable. Can anybody tell me what this is? Also, I use to be highly ranked in 100's of keywords in google now barely anything. The domain is several years old and has performed in well in the past. Can't figure out what is going on.
Keyword Research | | ecoscott0 -
Keywords and Rank Checker Tool
Two questions about checking the rank of keywords. The easiest way to say this is by example. I have a keyword that SEOMOZ ranks on google in the 32nd position but when I look for that keyword in Google it's nowhere to be found (it's buried deep in the results pages somewhere). Where does SEOMOZ get its keyword results from? How do I non-localize my browser so I can see "global" keyword results? Is there such a thing? thanks in advance.
Keyword Research | | dpdeleon10 -
Help finding some decent keywords
Anyone care to help a SEO Newbie find a couple of key words that would be easier to rank for for my website that provides kayak fishing information? mysite: yakangler.com The key words that I've identified are as follows: best kayak
Keyword Research | | mr_w
fishing from a kayak
fishing kayak review
fishing kayaks
kayak and fishing
kayak fishing
kayak for fishing
kayak reviews
kayak rigging
kayak weight limit
kayaks fishing
kayaks for fishing But I'm worried I'm missing the point, I don't see hardly any traffic from most of these. I've really tried to rank for "kayak fishing" but seem to be totally lost in the Google Panda abyss. Any advice on a different word or strategy would be greatly appreciated!0 -
Confirm my thoughts for this keyword
I'm working with a local kitchen remodeler. In reviewing the organic keyword searches for the last month I notice the word "kitchens" appearing in the top 10 keyword searches. Since I know we aren't ranking for the term "kitchens" I dug deeper. A handful of the searches are from the local area but most are one occurence of searches from cities across the US and the world. My surmise is that because there are 2.2 million searches for kitchens every month we just happen to be scraping enough of these searches, irrelevant as they are to our client, to make it look like an important keyword. Most of the visitors using this keyword are gone in seconds. Just wanted some folks to confirm what I'm thinking - that "kitchens" showing up in our top 10 keywords list is a bit of a red herring - and we should focus on more localized keyword searches.
Keyword Research | | DenverKelly0 -
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!
Keyword Research | | ChrisMciIlroy0