A domain is ranking for a plural key word in SERPs on page 1 but for the singular not at all?
-
What could the reasons that a domain is ranking for the plural version of a key word on SERPs page 1 and for the singular version not at all? Google knows that both key words belong together, as in the SERPs for one version also the other version of the key word is being highlighted. If I search for the domain with the plural keyword it shows up on the first page in SERPs, but If I search for the same keyword as singular (in German it is just removing an “s”) I see the plural version highlighted many times but I cannot find my domain. What could be the reason for this behavior? penalties?
-
I am still working on these issue. In the past year we tried allot (onpage and offpage) to rank for the singular Keyword, but without much success. We are still on Page 3....
In the meantime i am quiet convinced that these is an transactional/informative issue. Which factors could Google use to understand weather a search or a website is more transaktional or informative?
Apart of mentioning Buy now, Shop, Buy now, Shop
Any Ideas?
-
It is true that people searching for general information are more using the plural of an word. And people who already know what they want might uses the singular as it is more specific.
Thanks for your Engagement!
-
Okay, my best guess (and that's all it's going to be at this point), is that different criteria are being applied to each word, or at least google's understanding of the word's emphasis is different.
Sprachreisen seems to be bringing up results that focus mainly on information about language courses
whereas
Sprachreise seems to be focusing mainly on information about "Studying Abroad" (which is exactly what google translate thinks sprachreise means but I believe changes the context considerably)
This would make the first search more transactional, so people looking for courses, and the second a more informational one, people after information about studying abroad.
Based on this I would say get some articles up about studying abroad in general, and see what happens.
Now for the Disclaimer:
Disclaimer I was working pretty much entirely through google translate so the above theory could be utter rubbish. I would probably still stick with Theo's theory because it's simpler and the way to fix it is exactly the same: build some content around the singular keyword promote it and see what happens.
Sorry that's not a huge help, but it's all I've got.
-
Hi, thanks for your engagement! I am rely looking for new input....
The querries are these two:
which mean "language travel"
-
Like Theo above says it could be the fact that google make a distinction between singular and plural (example for english courses and english course below).
If the change is more dramatic than those examples it may be something more exotic, it could be that the search criteria are different as I mentioned or even that google treats different languages differently.
I have to admit I now think it's much more likely to be what Theo said, but it could be mixture of factors. If you want to give me the keywords exactly I will take a look.
Of course my not understanding German beyond a very very basic level is not going to help the situation.
-
Both versions of the keyword are used on the Site more or less the same. The funny thing is that if you search for the singular term almost everywhere is the plural term is highlighted. So that for me it is obvious that google sees a high correlation between both terms.
-
The domains that appear in the SERPs are mostly the same but the order is different. Some domains from page 2 are on page one and vice versa. But i would say that there no domain that disappears that dramatically.
The funny thing is that if you search for the singular term almost everywhere is the plural term is highlighted. So that for me it is obvious that google sees a high correlation between both terms.
-
It seems less likely that it's the informational \ transactional search then, both of those terms I would say sound mainly transactional.
Is there much variation in the other sites that rank for that term? Or is it just your domain that disappears?
-
Hi, the English key words would be more or less "language course" and "language courses". In German we often put words together to one word.
-
I have found that in the past this is down to the two keywords triggering different search criteria. One is considered a transactional search, and the other is an informational search. So it may be that is what is happening here.
What would the keywords be in english (if you don't mind my asking)?
-
I don't think this is (in most cases) related to penalties.
My best guess would be exactly keyword optimization (somebody optimizing his page for 'book' rather than 'books' will most likely rank higher for 'book' than he ranks for 'books) and incoming anchor text.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is domain redirection a good method for SEO?
I have a question and need suggestion from you guys. I’ve searched for my question on Google but don’t get exact information what I need. Maybe I can’t search perfectly.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | kamishah
Let me explain my confusion:
I’ve checked backlink profile of a website. He is not using his main domain while doing comment backlink. He put his another domain while doing comment backlink. The another domain redirect to the main domain. Why he use another domain while doing comment backlink?
Is it helpful to get better rank on Google? For example: My Main Domain = solutionfall.com
Another Domain= xyz.com (It redirect to solutionfall.com)
He just uses xyz.com while doing comment backlink. Thank You so much1 -
Black hat : raising CTR to have better rank in Google
We all know that Google uses click-through-rate (CTR) as one of it is ranking factor. I came up with an idea in my mind. I would like to see if someone saw this idea before or tried it. If you search in Google for the term "SEO" for example. You will see the moz.com website in rank 3. And if you checked the source code you will see that result 3 is linking to this url: https://www.google.com.sa/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDMQFjAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmoz.com%2Fbeginners-guide-to-seo&ei=F-pPVaDZBoSp7Abo_IDYAg&usg=AFQjCNEwiTCgNNNWInUJNibqiJCnlqcYtw That url will redirect you to seomoz.com Ok, what if we use linkbucks.com or any other cheap targeted traffic network and have a campaign that sends traffic to the url that I show you. Will that count as traffic from Google so it will increase the CTR from Google?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Mohtaref11 -
Noindexed Pages with External Links Pointing to it: Does the juice still pass through?
I have a site with many many pages that have very thin content, yet they are useful for users/visitors. Those pages also have many external links pointing to them from reputable and authoritative websites. If i were to noindex/follow these pages, will the juice/value from the external links still pass through just as if the page didn't have the noindex tag? Please let me know!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | juicyresults0 -
Unique page URLs and SEO titles
www.heartwavemedia.com / Wordpress / All in One SEO pack I understand Google values unique titles and content but I'm unclear as to the difference between changing the page url slug and the seo title. For example: I have an about page with the url "www.heartwavemedia.com/about" and the SEO title San Francisco Video Production | Heartwave Media | About I've noticed some of my competitors using url structures more like "www.competitor.com/san-francisco-video-production-about" Would it be wise to follow their lead? Will my landing page rank higher if each subsequent page uses similar keyword packed, long tail url? Or is that considered black hat? If advisable, would a url structure that includes "san-francisco-video-production-_____" be seen as being to similar even if it varies by one word at the end? Furthermore, will I be penalized for using similar SEO descriptions ie. "San Francisco Video Production | Heartwave Media | Portfolio" and San Francisco Video Production | Heartwave Media | Contact" or is the difference of one word "portfolio" and "contact" sufficient to read as unique? Finally...am I making any sense? Any and all thoughts appreciated...
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | keeot0 -
Negative SEO from Spammers Killing Client Rankings
Hi - I have identified a client website which was; a ) hacked and had several fraudulent pages added e.g. www.xxx.com/images/uggaustralia.html added which have 301 redirect links to another fraudulent websites. b) had an auto generated back link campaign (over 12k back links at present) with targeted anchor text at cheap ugg boots, ugg sale etc. I've removed the dodgy redirect web pages and also undertook a link audit using Google WMT, OSE and Seo Majestic and have disavowed all the spammy links at domain level. Consequently my client has dropped from top three for the key phrase to #9. Google WMT now sees ugg boots uk, ugg boots sale etc. as some of the most popular anchor text for the site even though it's blatantly obvious that the site has nothing to do with Ugg boots. No manual webspam penalties are in place however the auto generated anchor text campaign is still ongoing and is generating more spammy links back to non existent web pages - which still Google appears to be picking up. Question is - how long do you reckon it will take for the links to disappear and is there anything I can speed Google along as this issue if not of my making? p.s. For the record I've found at least 500 sites that have been targeted by this same campaign as well.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Door4seo0 -
RD and PA high but still not ranking
We picked up a client who before ourselves was just using link building as their SEO strategy. They came to us for on page SEO and overall guidance. We have done some targeted link building and did some work with their link building company to remove some links, however after doing some further diggings Im wondering if we still have some bad links? My reasoning for this is:- all the SEO work we have done on the pages are getting A reports in Moz (which is our back up check) the RD and PA for many of the pages we have focused on are higher RDs and PA's than the pages that rank on the first page Any suggestions?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | SocialB1 -
White hat link technique to banned domain
The question is: I have branddomain A (manually penalization by google, one year ago and after 4 consideration requests and more than 3/4 of links removed, stills banned) authority 42 And and new branddomain B (with fresh content created after penalization in the case of no recovery as it happen) authority 26 There are no links from A to B, both are now with same traffic but i want people that find me on domain A (partial penalized) to come to my new web brand. Both domains have same name, different extensión. So the question: Can i link with photo domain A to domain B, if i place nofollow and no ancor text on those linked photos. I want to have my traffic unified and i dont want to go against google guidelines
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Can anyone tell me why this site ranks so well?
Site in question: cellphoneshop.net From what I can tell from their link profile, the links they garner don't appear to be particularly high value but they dominate organic listings for my vertical (cell phone accessories), esp. in the last 2-3 months when Google was supposedly increasing the quality of their search results. Can anyone tell me why in particular this site ranks so well for competitive short and long tail terms?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | eugeneku0