Rank for a keyword with a slightly different designation

[JulienLeka]

Hi guys,

I'm a newcomer in the world of SEO. I'd like to rank for the keyword "therapy toy" but I'm used to name my product "therapy smart toy".

Is a slightly different designation of my product can affect my ranking position in the short or long term?

Thank you for your help

[MattRoney]

It's pretty hard to say, though in the absence of other factors I would very much doubt that only placing the keyword in the title would be enough to rank. That said, if paired with other factors like a strong, relevant link profile and solid content, you could definitely see some success.

It's a bit on the older side, but have you ever read through "How to Rank?" It might help your understanding a bit.

[JulienLeka]

Let's say the brand's mission is to develop "Therapy Toys".

Does putting "Therapy toys" in the home page title only, could be enough to rank well for that keyword (with a good DA and external links) even if i'm more using the singular in most of my blog content & product description?

Julien

[donford]

Glad to help Julien,

With only 1 option for you, it may make more sense to target the brand, or model than just the item type.

For example if I only had a 2010 Ford Taurus, I would target that, not the word car.

I'm only going off the basic information I can derive from the previous post so I hope this gives you some direction,

Don

[JulienLeka]

Thanks a lot Don,

Unfortunately I'm developing & selling only one toy, so difficult for me to use the plural... which is much more interesting than the singular... difficult...

I'll put more thoughts into it,

Thanks again

[donford]

Hi Julien,

That is difficult to answer. Google will take into the "intent" of the persons search. That is to say if I search from something generic like Car, Google thinks I want to see Cars (Buy& Sell) or Images. But that does not mean that if you type in Therapy Toy you will always see sites with Therapy Toys, however from a result standpoint it makes sense for Google to return a site with more than 1 option for such a broad term.

You will find that Google will return different results for plural keywords and non plural keywords as they are actually different words and may carry different intents.

Based on my example above (Therapy Toys, Therapy Toy, and Therapy Smart Toy) the one with the most searches is Therapy Toys. So, if it was my site I would take that into account and try to target that traffic (if possible) with my design.

Hope that makes sense,

Don

[JulienLeka]

Thank you Don, it helps

Do you mean that I don't have any chance to rank in top places for the query "therapy toys" if I always use "therapy toy" (without "s") to name my product?  Competitors on this keyword are retailers with a large catalog of toyS.

Thanks again,

[donford]

Hello Julien,

The term "therapy toy" and "therapy smart toy" are two different keywords. Each will generate different results in search engines. While the second keyword does incorporate the main keywords, the results will still vary.

When selecting which keyword to target I highly suggest you use Google Ad Words Keyword Planner to find what terms are the most popular thus bringing you the most potential.

For example on a U.S national level the term "Therapy Toy" receives 20 searches a month, while "Therapy Smart Toy" receives 0. While the broader keyword "therapy toys" (with an s) receives 480 searches per month.

Hope this helps,

Don