Hi all, I have a ton of keywords which I want to target for certain niches. I'll give a fictional example which is 100% identical to my scenario. In google adwords tool, it will show a much higher number for the keyword "easton hockey stick". I would rather optimize the keywords "easton hockey sticks" though. Would I be performing any SEO at all for the search term "easton hockey stick" if I perform SEO on "easton hockey sticks"? I'm currently perfoming SEO on the plural with s b/c it just sounds better. Am I doing it all wrong? Should I shift over to what exactly google adwords tool is suggesting? I noticed with the s, the search numbers drop drastically. Thanks
We have found that when we link to our site as oursite[dot]com vs www[dot]oursite[dot]com, Google will track the link without the "www". I would only assume that if the anchor text is pluralized the site would get credit for the plural but no the "non-plural" text within the anchor text. My opinion is that if you want to show for the non-plural text you would need to utilize that in your SEO campaign.
The singular and plural version of nouns are treated as different keywords. They are ranked separately. If you're trying to rank for "easton hockey sticks" then use "easton hockey sticks" as the link text "most" of the time should be your strategy. Linking with the singular when you want to rank for the plural will still help you rank for the plural, but just not as much as if you had linked with the plural.
What you are descibing with the www or no www sounds like a URL canonicalization issue which you should correct. If you can browse your web site w/ www and it stays www in the browser address bar, and then browse it again without the www and the address in the browser remains without the www, then you have URL canonicalization issues. If that is the case and Google shows the www version in the SERPs then it's likely because you have more inbound links to your home page w/ www.