Google Keyword Tool: What is considered a unique keyword?

[Alchemist23]

I'm trying to research keywords using Google's Keyword Tool.  After looking at results, I have the following questions:

1.  Does singular/plurals of a word count as two different keywords to Google (ie: photobooth and photobooths)?  Would I need to have a unique page targeting each word or will one page on my site be sufficient for targeting both?

2. I've noticed that different variations of keywords have the same global monthly search results.  This leads me to believe that Google see's all of them as one keyword.  ie: "photo booth props" and "props for a photo booth" and "props with photo booth", all have 22,200 search global monthly search resluts.  On the other hand "moustache prop" and "prop moustache" have different global monthly search results (480 and 590).  Can anyone explain this?

[Asher]

Answer to your first question.  Yes plural and singular count as two different keywords.  However, if you implement the plural form of the keyword you will also be using the singular form of the keyword, as normally the plural of a keywords just means to add an "S" (i.e. Best Developer and Best Developers are considered two different keywords but the plural of the keyword still exists within the phrase so it can end up counting as two different keywords).

In answer to your second question, these different keywords may have the same global monthly search but the priority in search ranking will go to the one that matches the search query the closest.  So if you have "photo booth props" and "props for a photo booth" but someone is searching for "props with photo booth", the person who has that exact match will normally rank higher than the previous two keywords associated with your site.  However, there are exceptions, such as a site that has major authority on photo booths might rank for the keywords solely based on authority.

I hope this helps.

[TakeshiYoung]

In regards to question #2, make sure you have Exact Match enabled.  The default setting is Broad Match, which groups all related keyword together.

In the left sidebar, look for the drop down that says "Match Types".  Uncheck the box marked "Broad", and check the box marked "[Exact]".  This will give you the search volume for the exact keywords that you typed in.

For example, using your examples, "photo booth props" has an exact global search volume of 5,400 while "props for a photo booth" only has 36 searches.

[Alchemist23]

Thanks!  That answers it!