Singular/plural on Google

Hi,

Is it possible to find out whether most people use the singular or the plural
version of a search phrase, when they search for it on Google?

The Overture search term suggestion tool doesn't consider singular/plural.
It only shows the singular version of the search phrase (which contains
two words), even if I type in the search phrase in plural.

My position for the plural version is worse, so I thought about making some
optimizations for the singular. And they do seem to distinguish between
singular and plural. Searching for the two different phrases gives me
different results.

/Mike

MHC Synthesizers and Effects
http://www.mhc.se

noone wrote:

Hi,

Is it possible to find out whether most people use the singular or the
plural version of a search phrase, when they search for it on Google?

It depends on the word/s. Unless the search engine exposes its statistics
(very unlikely), there is no way of knowing for sure. Looking at the number
of results for each will tell you something about expectancy.

The Overture search term suggestion tool doesn't consider singular/plural.
It only shows the singular version of the search phrase (which contains
two words), even if I type in the search phrase in plural.

When we studied Web and Hypermedia 2 years ago we were taught that stemming
was quite a global thing. Apparently Google have taken a step ahead since
then, which is good. So, that's a nice observation you made.

My position for the plural version is worse, so I thought about making
some optimizations for the singular. And they do seem to distinguish
between singular and plural. Searching for the two different phrases gives
me different results.

/Mike

MHC Synthesizers and Effects
http://www.mhc.se

You can try to estimate which phrases will give you better results. This can
be hard though. You must take into consideration many factors: change in
competitors' Web sites, change in your own site, change in the algorithm of
the search engine, and crawling.

Go with the gut feeling.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com

use wordtracker to determine plurals

mark
www.iosilver.co.uk

"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups (AT) schestowitz (DOT) com> wrote

noone wrote:

Hi,

Is it possible to find out whether most people use the singular or the
plural version of a search phrase, when they search for it on Google?

It depends on the word/s. Unless the search engine exposes its statistics
(very unlikely), there is no way of knowing for sure. Looking at the
number
of results for each will tell you something about expectancy.

The Overture search term suggestion tool doesn't consider
singular/plural.
It only shows the singular version of the search phrase (which contains
two words), even if I type in the search phrase in plural.

When we studied Web and Hypermedia 2 years ago we were taught that
stemming
was quite a global thing. Apparently Google have taken a step ahead since
then, which is good. So, that's a nice observation you made.

My position for the plural version is worse, so I thought about making
some optimizations for the singular. And they do seem to distinguish
between singular and plural. Searching for the two different phrases
gives
me different results.

/Mike

MHC Synthesizers and Effects
http://www.mhc.se

You can try to estimate which phrases will give you better results. This
can
be hard though. You must take into consideration many factors: change in
competitors' Web sites, change in your own site, change in the algorithm
of
the search engine, and crawling.

Go with the gut feeling.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:36:42 GMT, "noone" <noone (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote:

Is it possible to find out whether most people use the singular or the plural
version of a search phrase, when they search for it on Google?

The Overture search term suggestion tool doesn't consider singular/plural.
It only shows the singular version of the search phrase (which contains
two words), even if I type in the search phrase in plural.

Wordtracker.

And if you are doing serious SEO you need to be able to determine the
difference between singular and plural.

I don't use Overture anymore (pay for Wordtracker), but last time I
checked (a long time ago) they would include phrases like Mens
Lingerie, Men's Lingerie, Men Lingerie, Man Lingerie, Mans Lingerie,
Man's Lingerie all under one search phrase. Try the example above, if
it's still the same you'll get the same result for them all (I think
it was Mens Lingerie that's listed).

What they have done is add them altogether and listed them as one
result, which is a terrible thing if you use Overture for keyword
research.

I pay for the annual Wordtracker subscription (use it almost
everyday), if you don't want to have that annual expense pay for a
days access and create a lot of lists covering all your SERPs.
Everyone can afford a few days of Wordtracker and you won't regret it.
It's really easy to use.

David
--
Free Search Engine Optimization Tutorial
http://www.seo-gold.com/tutorial/