Plurals and the SEOmoz On Page Report Card

[ahirai]

I have some pages on my website that receive an "A" grade with the SEOmoz On Page Report Card if I use a plural term in a phrase (say, "landscape designers in Dallas") but an "F" grade if I use the singular term (say, "landscape designer in Dallas").

Is this a true and accurate reflection of how search engines see the page?

Am I going to rank well for plural terms but not for singular, given the specific on-page content I'm using in this example?

Or is this an opportunity for SEOmoz to tweak its' algorithm to better reflect the search engines?

[MatthewEgan]

Hi Ahirai,

This is a great question and something that comes up quite a bit.

Google has some basic forgiveness for Plurals, but you want to mix up your keyword placement at least a little bit so that you're not 100% exact match (this is my opinion, others might disagree).  Naturally, websites are going to reference keywords in partial match and exact match formats, and my belief and in my experience I've seen Google give credit for partial match keywords above and beyond simply following the SEOmoz Report Card.

What also supports this is your inbound link anchor text.  Diversity is everything.  You want to have some nofollow links, you want to have some exact match anchor text links, some brand name anchor text links, some partial match anchor text links.  Google doesn't respond well to 100% Exact Match thinking.

We're all taught, in link building, that No Follow is bad, but what if all the competitors have 30% NoFollow links on average, and your site has 0% NoFollow links.  That might sound like really good SEO, but you've created an unnatural Backlink Profile.

So mix up your usage as best you can, within reason, and use a majority of exact match keywords, but also use a few iterations and variants as well.

We get so hung up on the keywords themselves, but often just as important is the words that are around the keyword, the "Trees" that support your "Landscaping", etc.  You have to look at the bigger picture.

Hope this helped!

[ahirai]

Hi Matthew,

I agree with all of your points.

Nevertheless, I still think that it's overdramatic for the On Page Report Card to go from an "A" grade to an "F" grade when changing a single letter. It just doesn't seem to reflect the reality of how search engines look at content.

Akira

[MatthewEgan]

I'm a huge fan of the SEOmoz Report Card, and what I would say is that it rates your page for the provided keyword, not for variations.  The Report Card is meant to be a tool, and like any tool, the user and the users brain is an intended element.

I would say that if your primary exact match searches prefer a plural, over a non-plural, you primarily optimize towards the plural, but you also build anchor text links that support both.

If I were in your shoes and I got an F, I would go in and use the non-prefered phrase in an effort to reach a "B" or a "C" letter grade from the report card tool.

Google does discriminate against plurals.  I just ran a test using one of our clients, with the plural, and then without, and they were #1 for the plural, and #2 for without, with someone else ranking #1.  The plural does matter, thus if you're targeting the plural, and you were given an F by the Report Card tool, you will get SOME credit for Partial Match usage, but probably not enough if you're optimizing based on on-site factors alone.

Remember, per the 2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors, on-site SEO only make sup what, maybe 16% of the sites total ranking?

My best answer is a balanced strategy, with a diversified backlink portfolio that covers multiple bases of anchor text, both exact and partial match, plural and singular.

Cheers!

[ahirai]

Good advice, Matt, and thanks for taking a moment to provide an actual data point!

And yes, we definitely take a balanced approach combining on page, off page, PR, social, and more. This just happens to be "on page" day for me.

[MatthewEgan]

Thrilled to help!  I know it's a pain, but it's worth it!