Thanks for reading my post!

So a word may initially APPEAR to have very low competition. But then, after more prodding around, you realize that it's PLURAL version, actually has HIGH competition.

For example:

nike shoe - STRENGTH OF COMPETITION = 464
nike shoes - STRENGTH OF COMPETITION = Much Much Higher

Now if someone didn't realize the way Seach Engines work, they may mistakenly think: "Wow 464 isnt that horrible, I can rank for that eventually" - but they fail to realize that Search Engines generate results based on the singular AND the plural.
Search Engines INFER that the searcher may benefit from both results sometimes.

So question, when searching for a niche, how much attention do you pay to both the singular AND plural forms of your keywords, when crafting your niche phrases?

__________________
You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!

Advertise

Use Google Insights to compare the plural and singular term against each other. This will give you an idea of what your target market is looking for.

__________________

"Thou shalt not fuck off."
"Thou shalt not be a pussy."

Right but in gauging ACTUAL competition, I believe one must conisider the competition of the singular AND plural forms.

because, google renders the results page DRAWING FROM BOTH variations.

there is a slight difference on singular and plural results. but still, i think you must sum the competition for both form - no?

__________________
You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!

What to you mean by "drawing from both variations?"

Of course there is a difference in competition for each.

I'm not talking about using Google to check competition. I'm talking about using Google Insights.

When you use Insights to compare 2 keywords against each other, it will show you a graph of the differences in the searches. This tells which version is getting searched for.

__________________

"Thou shalt not fuck off."
"Thou shalt not be a pussy."

http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=1112

See, (you can can see yahoos patent too there.)

When you serach for a plural or singular word, the results returned actually represent a MIX of both forms of the word.

Hence, your actual competition must be guaged by considering BOTH plural and singular forms.


You could compare trends of the singular and plural forms in Insights, but I guess my point is, if you are doing competition analysis, you have to SUM the competition of both forms of the word...

__________________
You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!

the results may be compared against both forms of the word - but the only search term I'm concerned with is the version I'm going after - which no matter how the SERPs are crafted still only has 1 set of SERPs.

So which ever set of SERPs (either sinular or plural) that has the traffic and is something I can rank for is what I go for....logically this is the only answer that makes sense.

Without actually trying a mixed campaign (using both forms of the word in your link building / on page SEO) it's hard to say how you should go about it without testing. I'm certain this varies from keyword to keyword.

I understand what you are trying to say.

I have always used Insights or GTrends to see which is getting more searches and then I will directly target that version. The reason behind that is obviously because it's getting more searches.

By doing this, my sites will indirectly rank for the other version anyways over time, so I have never experienced any loss from doing things this way.

The article you left a link to is over 1 year old now, and Google is ranking things a lot more "intelligently" now. This is why sites can rank for both singular and plural versions even when you only target 1 version.

__________________

"Thou shalt not fuck off."
"Thou shalt not be a pussy."