Abbreviations in optimizations...

I'm curious as to what everyone here has experienced with regards to abbreviations in Google/Yahoo/MSN. ?

Specifically, regional abbreviations such as states/regions (i.e, Florida vs FL, United States vs USA, etc).

I optimize for both and have had success with both but I've always wondered if there's a definitive answer as to how Google handles abbreviations. For example, "auto repair in New Jersey" does not necessarily bring the same results as "auto repair in NJ". (Note: the terms I optimize for are very different and have very different results.)

Obviously, Google knows that NJ=New Jersey but doesnt always treat them equally. Any idea why?

 

Part of the document scoring process is text/phrase pattern matching, so documents with the "NJ" version on-page and in backlinks will score higher for the "NJ" search version. However documents with the full "New Jersey" will still be considered but with a reduced score and vice versa.

Hope that answers your question.

 

Try this out: visit Google Labs

try an abbreviation, and then its full spelling, and see how many results there are for each in the ajax box as you type! I use those results when buying domains, too.

The full spelling versions always have more results, which I always found to be strange.

 

Sure does, thanks!

Either way, we should still optimize for the most popular term (or at least to a similar ratio NJ/New Jersey).

 

Thanks for the tip!

I can't say I'm too surprised that the full versions always have more results since there could be more variations on terms like "new" "jersey" ... ?

 

Try them out in quotes, still - the full spelling gets more results!

For instance, "nj" vs "new jersey"