How does Google handle singular vs. plural words?

theiceman · #1 (**permalink**) 09-15-2004, 11:35 PM

When finding matches to search phrases, how does Google handle single/plural words.

Which is better to use for anchor text? singular form or plural form of the word?

just curious,
iceman

oagady · #2 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 12:56 AM

I belive plural. I made a mistake optimizing for the key phrases with singular words and for two months I was waiting for a moment when I start getting clicks from google or yahoo. When my site moved to 5th position in Yahoo with one of my keywords, I still didn't get any clicks from Yahoo. I realized that people don't do a search using singular keywords. I re-optimized the site for plurar keywords and got several back links with those keywords, it happened about five days ago. Yesterday and today I was getting clicks from Google and Yahoo with those keywords. Still very few, but better something than nothing, and it's been very short time since I changed keywords. When I get more back links with those new keywords, I believe the situation improves.

google junky · #3 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 11:57 AM

Ah, someone else from Indiana :)

I am using leather ties as an example since I don't know what your site is or the keyword or phrase your looking for.

If it were the case of Leather Tie or Leather Ties then you would use the plural. When a person searches for leather tie they will still come up with your site. The S is simply not used by google. A site I used this on is #1 for their plural version and #4 for the singular.

sfowler · #4 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 12:16 PM

I disagree, I find both search terms in the logs for certain things. Most of my visitors search in the singular. I believe they are considered similar, but the correct one comes first in the ranking. I have tried to get both on my site.

OpenYourEyes · #5 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 02:13 PM

You should optimize for both singular and plural forms of a phrase. Google junky claims that the s is simply not used by Google. He immediately followed that up stating his #1 plural ranking and #4 singular ranking. So he obviously contradicted himself, otherwise he'd have the same rankings.

Whether someone is going to search using the plural form is largely dependent on the industry. For example if someone wants to buy something like a book or a tie, there is a greater change that they'd use plural than if they were looking to buy a car or a house. Though, in almost any industry there will be people using either plural or singular.

The strategy I used was to first use plural for all incoming link anchor text. That got me near the top of the rankings for the plural form and also to the first page for the singular form (I guess that wouldn't work for a website promoting computer mice). The websites above me for the singular term were using the singular form for all their links. So once I was satisfied with the plural ranking, any new links would use the singular form. Now I'm top 3 for the plural & singular forms of our top two keywords.

I think some other search engines drop the plural in searches, but for Google alone its worth optimizing for both.

**crankydave** · #6 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 04:10 PM

I would tend to think that it's human nature to add the "s" to most searches, as in show me more than one.

Dave

whipnet · #7 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 05:59 PM

First think about what YOU would naturally search for if you were sitting in front of a search engine looking for your product.

I also get about 10 friends to do the same thing. By looking at what 10 people will search for emulating looking for your product, you can get a good idea of what words to aim for. Plural or not.

**incrediblehelp** · #8 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 07:33 PM

Well I tend to optimize more for plurals than singulars. I think more "seasoned" searchers use the longer, plural queries and expect better results from this search where as a newbie to searching is more apt to type singular, short queries. of course this is just my opinion.

Google definitely treats singular and plurals differently for almost all words, but you will probably find the same web sites showing up for both of these different searches , just in slightly different rankings notches.

google junky · #9 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OpenYourEyes

You should optimize for both singular and plural forms of a phrase. Google junky claims that the s is simply not used by Google. He immediately followed that up stating his #1 plural ranking and #4 singular ranking. So he obviously contradicted himself, otherwise he'd have the same rankings.

What I claimed was "When a person searches for leather tie they will still come up with your site. The S is simply not used by google."

Notice that I was talking about a singular word and wasn't talking about google never paying attention to an "S" ever. Meaning if you search without an "S",as singular, then you get results with the singular search in bold.

The reason the site is #1 for the plural version and #4 for the singular is because other sites were more optimized for the singular version. A site won't always come out #1 for plural and singular. You simply have to optimize the html and a plural domain name would be good as well to compliment what your working for. Naturally a lot of relevent backlinks using in most cases the plural version in the text link.

I will try to make it more lengthy of an explanation next time so you can understand.

oagady · #10 (**permalink**) 09-17-2004, 12:39 AM

When I search google for "single russian woman" or "single russian women", I get different results (except for one site on #1, which is probably has a lot of back links for both singular and plural keywords). So, I can see that google treats it differently. The question is - how the users search for those particular terms, in singular form, or plural. I believe the best solution to find out which form of keywords (plural or sungular) is the best for your industry, is to ask as many people as you can how whould they do a search if they searched for that particular product.

When I did a mistake optimizing for singular (and finally realized that it was a mistake), I asked people - if they wanted to meet a single Russian woman, whould they use "single Russian woman" or "single Russian women". Every one said that they would use plural form. Probably for other industries it might be different, but I think it make sense to ask as many people as you can which form they would use for the search. If 99% percent answer that they would use plural form, better to go with plural. If you can optimize for both - perfect! But in many cases it is hardly possible, unless you can get hundreds of back links where in some cases you use singular keywords, and in other cases plural.

etechraj · #11 (**permalink**) 09-17-2004, 01:29 AM

I belive plural.

bizgen · #12 (**permalink**) 09-17-2004, 04:46 AM

Fact One: Plural and single searches get different results.

Fact Two: The number of people searching under each varies depending on the search term.

Fact Three: The weight of those results will vary depending on the search term being used.

Fact Four: Both will also vary, along with how a search engine treats them, according to the type of plural grammar required for that search term. e.g. using examples from this thread "woman" compared to "women"; and "book" compared to "books"

So why exclude one or the other? Surely the solution is to optimise for both.

I always try and build a page based around each, but you can you get good results for both on the same page. Then obtain links to those pages using corresponding keyword and anchor text links.