Google Semantic Search: Now I'm really confused

[Jeepster]

I'm struggling to understand why I rank for some terms and not for other closely related ones. For example:

property in Toytown but NOT properties in toytown

property for sale in Toytown but NOT property for sale Toytown NOR properties for sale Toytown.

My gut instinct is that I don't have enough of the second phrasing as inbound link anchor text -- but didn't Penguin/Panda make all that obsolete?

[TakeshiYoung]

Singulars and plurals are different keywords in the eyes of Google. For example, property and properties are different (but related) keywords, and can return completely different results.

If you are ranking for one, and not the other, then you may need to improve your on-page optimization or get more backlinks. It may also make sense to create a separate page focused on the second keyword.

Penguin/Panda absolutely DID NOT make anchor text obsolete. Anchor text still matters, Penguin simply penalized sites that abused it on a large scale using spammy links. Panda had nothing to do with links, but instead focused on penalizing low quality/thing content sites.

[Jeepster]

Singulars and plurals are different keywords in the eyes of Google.

See, I'm not sure about that: If I Google,say, property in spain, some of the results include sites with properties (but not property) in the title tag.

It may also make sense to create a separate page focused on the second keyword.

But surely this is the definition of webspam? If my first page is about "property", then a second page focusing on "properties" brings absolutely nothing new to the table -- apart from attempting to game the search engines.

Just my two pennies'/cents' worth.

[TakeshiYoung]

Go do a search for "property" and "properties" on Google. You will see that the results that are returned are different. This is because Google treats singulars and plurals as different keywords. Someone searching for "property" has a different search intent than someone searching for "properties".

Think about the search intent of someone searching for property vs properties. Properties to me suggests someone looking for a list of a bunch of different properties on one page, whereas "property" seems more specific.

If you think that your page is relevant to both queries, then include both keywords on the page and possibly in the title to increase your relevance for those terms. Get backlinks to that page using both keywords as anchor text.

If you don't think your page can adequately serve people searching for both keywords, then it makes sense to create two separate pages targeted at each keyword. Yes, this can be done in a spammy way, but it can also be done in a way that adds value to the user and provides a better fit for what your user is searching for.