{"id":21760,"date":"2020-07-06T11:06:58","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T10:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fifteen-staging.fifteen.dev\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/"},"modified":"2020-07-06T11:06:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T10:06:58","slug":"single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"Single or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A recent meeting between Google\u2019s John Mueller and Search Engine Journal\u2019s Roger Montti<\/a> saw them discuss a small but significant question. Why does Google rank singular and plural keywords differently? For example, if you rank for the keyword, \u2018spatula\u2019 you\u2019ll find your score differs to a page ranking for the word \u2018spatulas\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason behind this difference is user intent. Roger and John\u2019s fascinating discussion expands on this but to help you out we\u2019ve put together some of our thoughts about this discovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This SEO score difference is one that works in general, so don\u2019t apply it to all your sites and expect to get the same result. It\u2019s important to first understand your client\u2019s needs and the user\u2019s intent and work from there.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does Google rank different sites for the same queries?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While singular and plural words are synonymous they are often used to ask very different questions. For example; when looking for product comparisons you may use plural e.g. Best headphones for working out? Whereas you\u2019ll use the singular for a specific product\u2019s information, repairs and informative pieces. This is the crux of Google\u2019s thinking and shows how important it is to write for the user\u2019s intent.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mueller explains how the Google algorithm works;
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026we would see those queries as being different\u2026 And when we see them as being slightly different, then we might think that one or the other of these pages makes more sense to show.<\/p>

So usually with singular and plural, we do recognize that they\u2019re synonyms, more or less.<\/p>

But we also recognize that maybe there\u2019s something kind of unique to one of them or to the other one.<\/p>

Such as, if you\u2019re looking for a plural maybe you\u2019re looking more for like a list or a comparison page or maybe a category page of different kinds of these items.<\/p>

So that\u2019s something where our systems try to take that into account and it can result in slightly different results being shown for one or the other.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This thinking makes sense and highlights the importance of writing for your user. By focusing on their intent and tailoring keywords, even synonyms, to user needs, you can get a boost in rankings and move up the SERPs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why not rank for both? This is where things get a little more complicated? Adding semantic variations is important to improving SEO scores but it should be done selectively. Mueller goes on to expand on this.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something where you\u2026 can\u2019t really force that, other than to tweak things subtly, that you kind of make sure that the right words, the right phrasing is on these pages, that you link them internally properly.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s sometimes kind of tricky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also worth keeping in mind that just because when you take a step back that these words or these queries sound very similar and they seem very much the same, it might well be that users do treat them as different queries and do expect different kinds of results.<\/p>

So\u2026 before just jumping in and saying oh I need to have the same page rank for both of these, maybe check with some other people to see, does it make sense to change this?<\/p>

Or is this something where it\u2019s actually not that bad?\u00a0 \u2026Another thing you can do is the page that\u2019s currently ranking, put some kind of a call to action on it and say hey, if you\u2019re looking for this, also check out this other page.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day writing for your user is the key to improving SEO<\/a>. Write in a style that they expect and use keywords that fit into their narrative and you\u2019ll find your Google rank rise. Contact us now<\/a> to find out more about how we can improve your SEO, content, social media, and PPC. <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent meeting between Google\u2019s John Mueller and Search Engine Journal\u2019s Roger Montti saw them discuss a small but significant question. Why does Google rank singular and plural keywords differently? For example, if you rank for the keyword, \u2018spatula\u2019 you\u2019ll find your score differs to a page ranking for the word \u2018spatulas\u2019. The reason behind […]","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSingle or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently - Fifteen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google's very own John Mueller recently broke down how your Google rank is affected by plural and singular words. Find out why here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Single or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Google's very own John Mueller recently broke down how your Google rank is affected by plural and singular words. Find out why here.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fifteen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FifteenDesign\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-06T10:06:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/fifteen-uploads\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Google-rankings-on-Google-Analytics.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kyle Lindsay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kyle Lindsay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Single or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently - Fifteen","description":"Google's very own John Mueller recently broke down how your Google rank is affected by plural and singular words. Find out why here.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Single or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently","og_description":"Google's very own John Mueller recently broke down how your Google rank is affected by plural and singular words. Find out why here.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/","og_site_name":"Fifteen","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FifteenDesign","article_published_time":"2020-07-06T10:06:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/fifteen-uploads\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Google-rankings-on-Google-Analytics.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Kyle Lindsay","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kyle Lindsay","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/"},"author":{"name":"Kyle Lindsay","@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/7ed95bc67f5f57b732bf2a5870cb4714"},"headline":"Single or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently","datePublished":"2020-07-06T10:06:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/"},"wordCount":674,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/fifteen-uploads\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Google-rankings-on-Google-Analytics.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1","inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/","url":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/","name":"Single or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently - Fifteen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/fifteen-uploads\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Google-rankings-on-Google-Analytics.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1","datePublished":"2020-07-06T10:06:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/7ed95bc67f5f57b732bf2a5870cb4714"},"description":"Google's very own John Mueller recently broke down how your Google rank is affected by plural and singular words. Find out why here.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/fifteen-uploads\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Google-rankings-on-Google-Analytics.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/fifteen-uploads\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Google-rankings-on-Google-Analytics.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/single-or-plural-why-google-ranks-keywords-differently\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Single or Plural: Why Google Ranks Keywords Differently"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/","name":"Fifteen","description":"Creative. Digital. Marketing.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/7ed95bc67f5f57b732bf2a5870cb4714","name":"Kyle Lindsay","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ff545c843da22e360dda49e4548bb9eed66d8b0c5f8b1a89afb5ee6ba4d44f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ff545c843da22e360dda49e4548bb9eed66d8b0c5f8b1a89afb5ee6ba4d44f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ff545c843da22e360dda49e4548bb9eed66d8b0c5f8b1a89afb5ee6ba4d44f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kyle Lindsay"},"url":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/author\/kyle\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}