Keyword affected by the following word, forming a keyphrase?

[Krizze]

This came to my mind:

Can word(s) immediately following a keyword hurt the ranking for that keyword, if they together form a phrase known to Google? Should I avoid keyphrases to rank better for a single keyword?

Let's say that I have a website that ranks very well for the keyword "rice". The home page title and headline might be "Rice around the world". Now let's assume I change the "around the world" to "pudding", making the title "Rice pudding", which is in fact one of the keyphrases suggested by Google Instant when one types "rice". Is it possible that Google now decides the page should not rank well for the generic "rice" search any more, because it is not about rice as such but rice pudding, and as a result the ranking for the "rice" search suffers?

This would probably make sense in some cases. A "flights to Hawaii" page should not rank very highly for a generic "flights" search, but just that specific search. However a "flights online" page might be all right to rank as high as any, if the meaning is understood (in all languages).

[seomasterbrasil]

Hello,

You're getting it right. If your generical keyword is trasnformed into a new one, more specific, Mr. Google is going to give it a different value.

But if the thing "rice pudding" is what everyone that types jsut "rice" searchs, so it won't be a problem.

And if you put two words together, one keyword and one without meaning, you're not going to be so relevant only by it.

For example: SEOMaster, is clearly SEO + Master.

SEOMoz is not that clear, because the second word has no meaning, and Google will try to understand anything but SEO, so it won't bring much points as the one above.

Hope it helps,

;]