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What to do When Profitable Keywords Are Grammatically Incorrect

I outline an eg of a Grammatically Incorrect Keyword Optimisation Problem

         

nosajarta

5:50 pm on Dec 11, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have a website that I'm trying to optimise for the search engines and some of the most profitable keywords that I'm coming up with are grammatically out of sync.

For example, according to overture, people are searching for estate in jamaica real sale instead of real estate sale in jamaica.
(I suspect that these are either persons whose first language isn't English or frustrated searches).
I would like to be optimised for this search by putting that exact phrase in my site, but I would likely look a little foolish.

I have the following ideas that I would like someone to shed some light on.

1.Create a page that uses this exact phrase in its headline, keywords and body, just for the search engines, but it must be a re-direct page for surfers...immediately taking them to a more sensible page. (how will this affect my relationship with the search engines?)

2.Figure out a way to hide the keywords using some html coding. (how will this affect my relationship with the search engines?)

3. Write some text like, "There is real estate in Jamaica. Real sales are going out of style, blah blah blah." Where the phrase in bold is almost an exact match, with the exception of the period.
(How will the search engines read this?)

4.Optimise my sight for the phrase, real estate sale in jamaica and hope that when people search for the phrase, estate in jamaica real sale my site comes up.

Should I really be concerned about exact keyword matching? If someone knows of a way match the sufers keywords without either looking crazy or being penalised or misinterpreted by the search engines and directories, please respond.

PS I would really like experimenting with #3, so please address in your reply if this is a real no no, because it might be mis-read by the search engines.

Thank you.

troels nybo nielsen

10:15 pm on Dec 11, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Welcome to WebmasterWorld, nosajarta.

I would advise against your idea no. 1. I believe that the experts call this a "doorway" page. I hear that search engines do not like it.

They do not like your second idea either: hidden text.

Your third idea may have something to it, but I would advise that you only use your bold text in a grammatically correct way to emphasize the meaning, not to cheat a search engine.

The general rule is: Create pages that work well for your human visitors. Playing tricks to cheat search engines is a job for the real experts.

Filipe

1:08 am on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



For example, according to overture, people are searching for estate in jamaica real sale instead of real estate sale in jamaica.
(I suspect that these are either persons whose first language isn't English or frustrated searches).
I would like to be optimised for this search by putting that exact phrase in my site, but I would likely look a little foolish.

I believe that Overture does some kind of "grammar correction" on searches, and it often bungles keywords like this.

I would look more at mispellings than anything else.

nosajarta

1:34 am on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks "Troels Nybo Nielsen." I think I'll try both 3&4 and see what happens.

willybfriendly

1:44 am on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Doesn't Overture list the keywords in alphabetical order?

That has always been my understanding. What is listed is not necessarily the order in which the search phrase is entered.

WBF

Robert Charlton

2:10 am on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



nosajarta - You've gotten good advice here. I would agree that three and four are your best bets.

You might do a search on the site (or use Google to search the site) for "targeting misspellings." I've seen some ingenious suggestions along the lines of your #3. One that I remember went... "no matter how you spell it, mispiled keywrods are...." etc etc.

ogletree

2:27 am on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Don't go by the order of words on the overture keyword tool. That is not the order people type them in. It means that those four words together in any order add up to the number you see. Go to word tracker and compare them. Most people do not type in stuff like that. Most people type things right. Misspellings and wrong word order will account for a very small ammount of your traffic. I have never seen a misspelling or weird word order beat out the right way. You have to be very carefull with the overture tool it is not very accurate. They throw a lot of stuff together and put one number after it. You have to look at WT and Overture and look at what other people are optimizing for. If you type that in and there are only a few results on Google and overture says that 5000 people a month type that in that there is no way that is what people type in. When I look at the Overture results I rearange the words to what they should look like and that is what I optimize for.

I have terms that look like that in overture and my logs only show people typeing it in right. I have never seen that order in my logs and I am number one for both.

linton

4:03 pm on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have a similar problem on my site and have primed my page for the words "torrevieja apartment" (torrevieja being a town in Spain) and comes in the top 20 on google. However, the more gramatically incorrect search "apartment torrevieja" comes up at position 180 on google! It would be very difficult for me to prime the page for the second search string.

So I don't think google shuffles the words around to account for errors in grammar.

molsmonster

2:36 am on Dec 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi Nosajarta,

Recently joined this forum, and just read your post. Stay away from #1 and #2. You will find #3 can work well. It is an excellent method and can be some fun. There is ,however, no need to bold or italicize the words. Another in the same vein is to bullet the words.

You have already received some good advice regarding the use of overture and wordtracker. The Overture results are not the exact wording employed by searchers. It is something about alphabetical order. Perhaps one more versed in Overture can add their thoughts.

You will find some good threads and discussions in this forum on the ontological approach many believe G is moving toward(see applied semantics)If they do then the exact order of phrasing will be of less importance tomorrow than it is today.

One point:Try to optimize each page of your site for a different keyword phrase or two.

Just my opinion nothing else

librarian

8:11 pm on Jan 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi,
I'm new to the forum but have had some experience with misspelled words on a client's site. The words have always brought in traffic but the client doesn't believe the traffic from the misspellings have resulted in many sales. People using the misspellings seem to be at the very beginning of a "buying path" when they can't correctly spell the name of the product. They may need to do a lot more reading/research before being ready to buy.

RS

molsmonster

8:44 pm on Jan 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



. People using the misspellings seem to be at the very beginning of a "buying path" when they can't correctly spell the name of the product. They may need to do a lot more reading/research before being ready to buy.

Hi Librarian,

You have made an excellent point regarding the buying cycle. However, I am a believer of "if I can get them there they will buy." If the copy is compelling and you have what they want, they can look all they want as long as they come back. It may take a few visits, but with the best product at the best price half the battle is over. The other 90% is peruasion.

Targetting mispellings can open some doors others have neglected. I would not rec. attenmpting it on the same page as the correct spelling, but rather creating a new page and keying it there. You can even have some fun with it.

After all:

"Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy,it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe."

yowza

9:15 pm on Jan 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Misspelling is necessary to compete with the big retailers.

In support of molsmonster's statement {
One of my site's primary keywords is a misspelled name. I get about 50-100 visitors a month from the misspelling with many of them buying products. The misspelling is at #1 on all the serps.

I also have a page with the name spelled correctly. However, not many people enter the site throught this page. It is buried at the bottom of the serps.
}

Robert Charlton

11:42 pm on Jan 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



One of my clients sells a product where misspellings on the web outnumber correct spellings, two to one. This is reflected in both the search stats in Overture (where this misspelling is so prevalent that Ov leaves it alone) and in the number of pages in Google.

We target both on the same page, and we are open enough about it in the title tag (correctspelling/misspelling widgets) that it hasn't given us any problems.

There are a lot of factors regarding whether to use a separate page or the same page to target a misspelling... how common it is... how competitive it is... and how the site is structured. If you have a lot of different phrase combinations involving multiple spellings, it may be very difficult to structure a site with two sets of pages. But if the phrase is extremely competitive, targeting both on the same page also creates some problems.

librarian

11:55 pm on Jan 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi yowza & molsmonster,
Thanks for your comments. You're so right about the need for persuasive copy on the site pages. Especially for anyone coming in at the top of the "buying path" which is really another descriptive phrase for the "theme pyramid." My misspelled words come in near the top which allows visitors to work their way to the product they are looking for while learning about it as they go.

The products on my client's site are more expensive then those for impulse buying. A purchase also requires a phone call to complete the sale. So tracking does not help to know the roi of the page containing the misspellings.

Early on in developing the site I found it easier to state on one page the product name was spelled ****x but may also spell it xyz, xxy, xyy etc. Just for fun I checked the August keyword list and found 130 people came to the site by misspelling the name. At least 6 variations were used. This was only for Google results.

The Google Adwords tool is a great place to look for misspellings. I checked it just the other day and found several new spelling versions of my word. People can be so creative in their spelling. I have to admit my fingers spell creatively sometimes too.

All the pieces of the site puzzle/SEO/SEM have to be in place and in balance to produce the desired results -- good sales.

Molsmonster, can you provide more information about your creative spelling example? I'd love to learn more about it.

RS

eWhisper

6:13 pm on Jan 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



There was a thread a while ago [webmasterworld.com...] with a similiar bent to using a humorous page as legitimate (non doorway page) to rank well. I can't find the other threads that were similiar to this one ATM.

Making a page that educates people to the proper spelling and grammar in a humorous, non degrading, way, could both warm people to your site, and educate them to your product, and rank well.

molsmonster

8:45 pm on Jan 4, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi eWhisper,

Agree whole heartedly. creating this type of page does not take long and it can be fun. It does open a few doors. A point for some: it should not be a cloaked page, but another landing page, and a page your visitors will enjoy.

Also used when vaious like terms are used for one meaning. There was a time when time share meant sharing computer time--now when one hears times hare they think of interval vaction ownership,properly spelled timeshare.

Librarian, I will hvae to do smoe resceah inrdor to fnid the atcaul unviretsy paepr. I had taht qoute in my macihne flies and hvae no ieda wehre it ogirinated.But I will look :)