Keywords Best Practices for On-Page Optimization

[yacpro13]

Hi guys,

we've successfully optimized our home page such that it receives a Grade A for 3 completely different, high traffic keywords. Looking forward to seeing the results!

The keywords in question were identified by using the monthly searches reported from the Google Keyword Tool.

For one of the keywords, the Google Keyword Tool differentiates between what I thought would be seen as being the same. For example, let's say Google reports these three keywords as high traffic keywords:

tea cup
tea cups
the tea cup

Using the On-Page Report Card, we get a Grade A for 'tea cup', but we get an F for the other 2 terms!

I thought Google searches didn't really care about the plural form or adding the word 'the' in front.

How should we interpret the result from the On-Page Report Card for the plural form of the keyword and with the word 'the' added in front?

Would you track all 3 instances of the keyword independtly in your campaign, or would you just track 'tea cup'?

Thanks!

[JoshPugh]

Hi yacpro13,

There have been questions on a similar note in the Q&A before if you have a look here and here.

Basically the long and short of things is that yes, they are two completely different terms. There is evidence that adding a plural to something for example actually implies changes in what the searcher was looking for and therefore it's arguably appropriate that different content appear.

While this is a huge pain, you want to make sure that you are targeting a term that you think is appropriate. Out of the tea cup, teacups and teacup, which one of these has the current SERP that is around what you're looking for? Have a think about what people would search for and focus on the big SERPs, not the little ones on the side.