Impact of slight character variations in anchor text
-
Does anyone have experience of how Google deals with slight character variations, e.g. Facade v Façade?
From an SEO perspective, are these treated as two completely separate words or is Google clever enough to determine the intent of the searcher & the site?
-
I watched a few SEOmoz webinars and Rand Fishkin mentions a bit about keyword vectors, which were explained to be a matrix of sorts that groups keywords with related words. The example given was a key word snowboard is associated with mountain, snow, cabin, etc., so I'm sure Facade and Façade are closely associated, but they're apparently treated as different terms when it comes to search results--just try searching for both Facade and Façade separately (and together) and you'll get different results. I'd venture to guess that versions of words like cafe and café, resume and résumé are prioritized by location and local language, but I'll need someone to confirm that.
I write copy in Chinese and English, but since I am not a native Chinese speaker, I creatively include all versions of questionable terms in anchor text and the content body at least once. To find the variation of the term I want to use consistently, I first check the local dictionary, ask my target audience, and then do a search of all variations in different search engines to decide where I want to rank highest. I've been happy with the long term results.
-
I did a quick search for Facade and Façade and Google is able to understand the difference and display the correct results and it didn't asked me to correct the word. Google's language detection technology is pretty good. If you use Google translation then there might be some instances where you may not get 1x1 translation of the sentence but it is better than other tools available.
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
-
Meta Description used in webpage content? impact of this technique.
I just do competitor Analysis, one of my competitor follow technique like Use Meta Title as H1 tag on each page Use Meta Description on Content section ( Same as meta description ). Please suggest me is this technique work or have any benefits of this kind of thing in ranking or visibility.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HuptechWebseo0 -
257 character meta description showing on Google?
Hi Guys, Noticed this recently, for the keyword "granny flat prices" on Google Australia. See screenshot: https://prnt.sc/fmp4is Any ideas why Google is showing a 257 character description like this? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CarolynSC0 -
OK to change the anchor text of a link?
I have built a link on behalf of a ciient in a long, well-written article on a reputable website that accepts contributor accounts. I therefore control the link. I have since realised that the anchor text of the link could be optimized much better than it currently is (while still only being a partial match). Would I be punished by the algorithm for going in and changing the link? I know it's not 100% "natural," but then we're SEOs, and i don't think it's too implausible that a website owner may go in and do the same... Maybe if I add some text as well, it would make things look more natural?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | zakkyg1 -
Do onpage named anchors play a part in SEO?
Hi Is having on page links from top to bottom etc using keywords as anchors a good methodology? Does it help the page for those words? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet1 -
Impact of simplifying website and removing 80% of site's content
We're thinking of simplifying our website which has grown to a very large size by removing all the content which hardly ever gets visited. The plan is to remove this content / make changes over time in small chunks so that we can monitor the impact on SEO. My gut feeling is that this is okay if we make sure to redirect old pages and make sure that the pages we remove aren't getting any traffic. From my research online it seems that more content is not necessarily a good thing if that content is ineffective and that simplifying a site can improve conversions and usability. Could I get people's thoughts on this please? Are there are risks that we should look out for or any alternatives to this approach? At the moment I'm struggling to combine the needs of SEO with making the website more effective.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RG_SEO0 -
How fast to change non-branded anchor text
A client has most of his links from sitewide partnership links with non-branded anchor text. One we changed to nofollow and one partnership we're ending next month, but the rest he wants to change to branded anchor text There's 7 sitewides and a bunch more single links. Should we change the anchor text all at once or space it out to one major change per month?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Undocumented anchor-text API result
Regarding the anchor-text api, there is no definition for *imr on the wiki:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sycorr
http://apiwiki.seomoz.org/w/page/13991127/Anchor Text API ie. http://lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape/anchor-text/google.com?Scope=phrase_to_page&Cols=2048&Sort=domains_linking_page&Expires=1329770786.46868 returns "[{"apuimr":5.422834471373288e-12},{"apuimr":4.785130890652429e-13},{"apuimr":2.922901387480201e-09}]" What is *imr?0 -
Registry changes: Negative impact on organic rankings?
A client's site ranks very well for extremely competitive terms. The google rankings have been stable for over a year. There has been an organizational shake up, and the 'registrant' and administrative/billing/technical contact info needs to be updated, including the physical address. I have been hesitant to modify the information for risk of a negative impact on the rankings. Will changes to the registrant/contacts/address info at the registrar have a negative impact on current organic rankings? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seagreen
Greg0