Stop List and Keywords
-
I've came across a suggested list of words that google will ignore in your content, if this is correct and one of our main keywords is one of those words, will it lose effectiveness?
We are trying to get #1 SERP for "Self Tan" and it seems "Self" is one of the words ignored - so should we just be focusing on Tan?
Any tips / advice would be great!
-
I went to that URL listing the stop words in the Internet Archive, and it's had the same content for at least five years now. Years ago, Google did have a notice when it ignored common words, but I don't remember it as being this restrictive even a long time ago. I would consider that list vastly outdated.
Here's some information from Google itself:
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861
Words that are commonly used, like 'the,' 'a,' and 'for,' are usually ignored (these are called stop words). But there are even exceptions to this exception. The search
- [ the who ] likely refers to the band; the query [ who ] probably refers to the World Health Organization -- Google will not ignore the word 'the' in the first query.
-
Does Google ignores the word an ? A query for "seo" and "an seo" produces different results.
-
Even though I can see why search engines would find ways around have to deal with these words too much (or attach a lot of value to them) I think the list is either too large, or nonsense altogheter. Prime example would be the inclusion of the word 'plus' on the list. A query for the keywords 'google plus' returns quite different results that a query for 'google'.
-
Hi Theo,
Well this could be mis-information which is why I wanted to check but I've come across it in a few places;
http://www.link-assistant.com/seo-stop-words.html
I've only recently got involved with this company and we're work on our link backs (and especially the anchor text!).
Thanks
Chris
-
Is this a public list? If so, I'd love to have a look.
I don't see why Google would ignore words in the first place, and even more so why they would ignore the word 'self'. In theory I could see why the would ignore words like 'a' or 'the', but not 'self'.What reason does the author of the list state for Google's exclusion of the keywords on it?
As a side note, it is always wise to optimize both incoming anchor text and on-page optimization for closely related variations of words (such as 'self tan' and 'tan' in your case).
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
-
Newbie Keyword optmization question
I'm optimizing this page: http://gainesvilleholistichealthcare.com/treatment-options/acupuncture/ This is for a local, Gainesville, Fl acupuncturist. The words that show the most search volume on GKT for the city of gainesville are "acupuncture" followed by "acupuncture gainesville fl". Will optimizing for "Acupuncture in gainesville" or "Your Gainesville Florida Acupuncture solution" optimize it for both of these important terms? I guess my question really is, how specific does the match between the searcher's phrase and the KW's I use need to be.
Keyword Research | | Graphbyte0 -
Moz Keyword Competition Analysis Tool
Hi Just been having a play around with the Moz Keyword Competition Tool and noticed that the reuslts given in terms of exact match searches is different from the data in the actual Google Adwords keyword tool even though the Moz tool pulls its data form the Google Adwords index so technically should be the same right? Was just wondering if anyone else had noticed that or if I am missing something. All you help would be greatly appreciated! Cheers
Keyword Research | | PIXUS0 -
Local Keyword Geolocation
I am really confused about how geolocation and search works. For example, I can search "Air Conditioning Repair" in Google and will get local search results depending on my geolocation. How do I set up keywords in SEOmoz "Air Conditioning Repair" and get the ranking depending on the users geolocation? Do I have to have the keyword "Sacramento Air Conditioning Repair" to get the same results if I search within the vicinity of Sacramento with the term "Air Conditioning Repair." Thanks in advance for everyones help on this question.
Keyword Research | | TalkingSheep0 -
Reasonable price for Keyword Research
If I knew what to look for I would do it myself. But I want it done now. The words would relate to one broad category with possible gold that can be mined from 12 sub-categories categories. In my preliminary seat of the pants research I didn't find much in the sub-categories but there were around 10 key words in the broad categories. I am getting a lot of long tail words ranked but I don't believe there is hardly any traffic. Does anyone know what a reasonable estimate is for this degree of keyword research? Also if anyone would like to submit a bid for this work please personal email me. Utah Tiger.
Keyword Research | | Boodreaux0 -
Comprehensive Keyword Research Report?
I'd like to provide a keyword research report to a client, that includes all of the keywords we're targeting, organized nicely along with relevant data for each (keyword difficulty, search volume, etc.). Is there a way to do this other than running an individual report for each keyword? I'd like to avoid sending them a 50 page document showing all of the keyword research 😉 Thanks for any help! Josh
Keyword Research | | JoshTurner0 -
Not Set Keywords
Hi, we have recently been working on our site's keywords and we have seen an increase in traffic. As I monitor my keywords, I see that the Not Set keyword has increased a great deal and now become my top keyword. I researched some but all I got is that users are bookmarking my page or using other avenues to reach my website. Can anyone give me a more concrete answer? Is this bad? Or is this a direct result of an increase in traffic. Any words of wisdom will be much appreciated, As you were...
Keyword Research | | SBRMarketing0 -
SerpIQ vs. Keyword Difficulty tool
http://imgur.com/6uidr Is this any good for keyword research? I see they use some weird metric and I'm not sure whether those are relevant at all, plus it's really hard to do a bulk research. Let me know what you think.
Keyword Research | | jest0 -
How to target very broad, umbrella keywords on the homepage
Hey there SEO Mozzers, I'm new to the SEO Moz community and would genuinely appreicate any advice/input on this topic. I'm part of the online marketing team for a UK-based site called Tendea.co.uk. We operate an introductory platform for enabling the connection between parents and families seeking care services (childcare, pet care, senior care, home & garden care, etc.) and individuals providing care services (babysitters, nannies, pet sitters, housekeepers, etc.). To take a US site for comparison, the services are very similar to those offered by Care.com I'm currently having a bit of difficulty as to what very broad, umbrella keywords we should be targeting for the homepage, primarily in the meta title/description. We've started with keywords such as "care, family services, care services, and family care", but I think these terms are almost too generic and aren't necessarily terms we really want to be ranking for. I suggested to our in-house SEO team that we just target some of our strongest keywords from each of the individual care categories for the homepage (babysitter, pet sitter, housekeeper, caregiver, etc.). They were against this idea, though, as we have separate subfolders that target the individual care categories and their specific keywords (tendea.co.uk/childcare, /pet-care, /elderly-care, etc.) Essentially the argeument is that we don't want to be targeting these terms on the homepage and on a separate subfolder page, as then the two pages would be competing for each other's keywords. Instead we're being encouraged to find some sort of umbrella terms to target for the home page that can encompass all of the care categories. For comparison's sake, I took a look at Care.com's meta data and it targets all their specific keywords for the various care categories "Babysitters, nannies, Child Care & Senior Home care - Care.com". Is this the right kind of strategy to take, or do you guys have any suggestions for much broader, umbrella keywords to target on our homepage? Thanks in advance for your input! -Mike
Keyword Research | | Tendea0