Is having exact match keywords better than not

Alucard348 · Mar 18, 2022

Say you find a keyword on semrush that says "best plumber nyc"

Would it be better if I found some creative way to put the exact keyword in my content(like I am the best plumber nyc has to offer), or would "I am the best plumber in nyc" work the same for ranking. Also does capitalization matter at all here? Would "best plumber NYC" have any effect.

So the two questions are:
1) Does Google care about prepositions and other text linkers like that in keywords. Does "best plumber nyc" = "best plumber in nyc"
2) Does Google care about capitalization in keywords. Does "Best Plumber NYC"= "best plumber nyc"= "best plumber NYC"= "BEST PLUMBER NYC"

edit)
And just had this one come up. Does order matter?
3) Does google care about keyword order. Does "nyc best plumber"= "best plumber nyc"="plumber nyc best(as an example)"

thank you

tazarbm · Mar 18, 2022

Alucard348 said:
Does Google care about prepositions and other text linkers like that in keywords

no

Alucard348 said:
Does "best plumber nyc" = "best plumber in nyc"

yes

Alucard348 said:
Does Google care about capitalization in keywords

no

Alucard348 said:
Does "Best Plumber NYC"= "best plumber nyc"= "best plumber NYC"= "BEST PLUMBER NYC"

yes

Alucard348 said:
Does google care about keyword order.

no

Alucard348 said:
Does "nyc best plumber"= "best plumber nyc"="plumber nyc best

yes

Google can read keywords no matter how they've written as long as they have the same intent / meaning. The only thing that I've heard it matters is in Adwords because google wants to milk you of as much money as possible, so they'll have no moral issues forcing you (the advertiser) to pay for all possible variations of a keyword. But I've stopped doing Adwords (well, PPC in general) in 2014 so I can't confirm whether or not this is true. It's just that I've heard someone mentioning it on this forum some weeks ago and since I have an undying passion for hating on google (and ultra rich corporations in general) I remembered this detail so I can bash on google again with every chance that I get

DeadJoe · Mar 18, 2022

You can use whatever variation you want as long as it means the same thing. You really don't need to worry about placing keywords in your content, just make sure it is in your page title and H1, you don't really have to repeat it constantly, kw density is bullshit tbh. Make sure your content satisfies the search intent, that's all that matters.

VortexAlpha · Mar 22, 2022

Alucard348 said:
Say you find a keyword on semrush that says "best plumber nyc"

Would it be better if I found some creative way to put the exact keyword in my content(like I am the best plumber nyc has to offer), or would "I am the best plumber in nyc" work the same for ranking. Also does capitalization matter at all here? Would "best plumber NYC" have any effect.

So the two questions are:
1) Does Google care about prepositions and other text linkers like that in keywords. Does "best plumber nyc" = "best plumber in nyc"
2) Does Google care about capitalization in keywords. Does "Best Plumber NYC"= "best plumber nyc"= "best plumber NYC"= "BEST PLUMBER NYC"

edit)
And just had this one come up. Does order matter?
3) Does google care about keyword order. Does "nyc best plumber"= "best plumber nyc"="plumber nyc best(as an example)"

thank you

I will try to answer your questions based on my own experiences with keywords optimization which turned out to be pretty successful.

1. Yes, this could have an impact because you need to find the best wording order that the majority of users would use for their searches. In this case, I guess the more hits would have a query "best plumber nyc" but you should check this in some tools to be sure.

2. I would keep it without capitalization, no one will search in caps lock something like this, or at least not that many people, so I would stay out of it, as it could even look spammy in some campaigns.

3. This can have some significance, I wouldn't say this is the key for good results, but you should put keywords in order that you think users would search for them, so you should go with something that sounds more natural.

davidelzs · Mar 22, 2022

Normally google don't care for exact keywords. It cares only about quality content related to the targetted keyword.

Is having exact match keywords better than not

Alucard348

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