Singular vs plural SEO

[AshSEO2011]

Hi everyone,

OK I've been looking at the Google adwords keyword tool and it's thrown some of my On-page SEO into question (everything said here are examples, I haven't used any real life terms or figures).

Lets say my page is about "Green Apples", let's say the keyword tool shows that the singular version "Green Apple" gets more searches (as an example).

Should I optimize for the singular or the plural?

Also lets say my title tag for that page is "Green Apples | Apples Galore UK" would Google/SEOmoz count that as an optimisation for the singular "Green Apple" or do the search engines take the title literally and don't differenciate between singular and plurals?

Thanks in advance everyone!

Regards,

Ash

[seo-cat]

I would optimize for singular if keyword tool indicates more searches for that.

On the other hand I presume search engines become better and better in recognizing singular vs plural and consolidating search results accordingly. So in the long term maybe this wouldn't/shouldn't matter?

[Alex-Harford]

Make sure the language you use is natural. You might be able to rule out one or the other if it wouldn't be natural in your content.

Advice I've read in the past has recommended to optimise for both, though it depends on the term of course; some might be better as plural, some might not. Compare the search results for each and if one is more competitive than the other. Each might bring up completely different results, I think one example I read was that the singular showed e-commerce sites whereas the plural showed descriptive sites - I can't remember the example that was used.

Optimising for the plural is more likely to help with the singular than the other way around, but I think Google can usually tell they're related e.g. www.google.co.uk/search?q=red+bull+sticker - in more cases a longer tail keyphrase will probably show for both plural and singular, even if you just optimise for one of them.

[ReneReinholdt]

Google / Bing will understand that your plural keyword is probably the same. But it will rank you better if you optimize for the exact match key-phrase. So my advise would be to keep focus on the one with the most searches and mention the other a few times. That way you get both, but make sure that the language is something that makes sense and reads well.

[AshSEO2011]

Thanks for the answer Rene! Is there a way to optimise page titles for both? For example "Green Apple | Green Apples | Apples Galore UK" (don't ask how I came up with a site about apples as an example, it was the first thing that came to my head) seems a bit pointless?

Or would optimising for both feature only in the pages content?

Regards,

Ash

[AshSEO2011]

Thanks for the excellent answer Alex! I think I'm going to go for the plural as it is more accurate to the content on the page.

Regards,

Ash

[Alex-Harford]

You can optimise titles for both. It's best to have your prime keyphrase near the beginning of the title - and make sure the title is not too long.

The way you suggested does make it look like you're just stuffing the keywords in for the sake of it though...again it depends on your keywords but something like this would look more natural with the downside of not having one of the phrases nearer the start:

"Green Apple seller: the best Green Apples"

[ReneReinholdt]

be careful when optimizing for both, you might end up in a situation where it will look like keyword spamming. I personally wouldn't optimize for both in the page title, just the primary. And then optimize for the secondary and the primary one in the H1,H2 to Hwhatever..

You don't want to look like a spammer.

[martim_santos]

Hey everyone! This is actually the first time I ever posted a question here on MOZ! Guess I was (still am) embarrassed by being an SEO Noob!

That being said, I really have to get some input on this matter and i was wondering if you guys might be able to help.

I'm optimizing a page for a wedding venue in Portugal. Currently, according to google trends the Plural - Venues for weddings, scores considerably better than the Singular, Venue for weddings (this was researched in Portuguese written terms of course). Despite this, i'm leaning towards an optimization for the Singular term, because the plural seems to un-natural to fit in the content, or title. I managed to fit the Plural in the description but i've read that it hasn't influenced rank directly for a while.

Currently my title tag reads: Venue for Weddings | Name of the Venue. I really can't find anyway that it makes since to me in the Plural... and i feel like if i was a user, i would rather click on the singular term cause it just makes a lot more sense. But my opinion is most probably biased by the fact the i understand that using the plural term will be solemnly and SEO effort to rank higher for a term that has more average search per month.

My question is: In the current state of search algorithms, will an optimization for the singular term, still get me some rank on the plural key phrase?

Let me know what you think about this please, and thank you in advance for your time.

Most Respectfully,

Martim Coutinho dos Santos

[JulienLeka]

Hello Martim,

Did you get a response to your question?

I actually have the same problem... any feedbacks would be great

Julien

[Alex-Harford]

"the plural seems to un-natural to fit in the content, or title"

In that case, I wouldn't use it. I can't speak for Portugese, but in English, in the last 2 or more years I can't remember any cases I've had where Google doesn't recognise the difference between plural and non-plural anyway.

What happens when you search for the keyword in plural? Do non-plural results show up? And vice-versa? Trying that out should help.