Word modifiers and how G handles them.

clothes va clothing, modifiers, words

[MJunge]

I know (but can't remember the tech term) that G handles, or tries to handle singular and plural the same, as well as other "versions" of words. We've noticed that for our major key words (american girld doll clothes) and the near modifier (american girld doll clothing) the results are VERY different. Is this because we have been using "doll clothing" in our meta description or is G handling words a little differently than I understand it?

[tedster]

Not sure the word you are thinking of -- is it semantics?

Any rate, yes Google has some very sophistated semantic components in their algorithm, and they are growing more so all the time. You won't find anything like a one-to-one mapping from what I can see, although on some searches it may seem like that. But that's my point -- semantic mapping appears to be search specific. The "holy grail" of search seems to be user intention, and semantics is one tool in that quest.

On-page factors can play a part, and backlink influence (including words near the backlink). Google has given us the "tilde" operator [~].Put it in front of a keyword when you search, and you will see at least the top "layer" of semantic matching.

[edited by: tedster at 1:27 am (utc) on Dec. 11, 2006]

[jdMorgan]

"Stemming" is the word... But that's about all I know. :)

Jim

[piatkow]

Don't know about clothes/clothing but it works for straight singular/plural combinations.

Infuriating if your search arguement is explicitly for "widgets" in the plural and the first three pages are "widget" in the singular.

[arnarn]

I don't think your example of clothes vs clothing is a valid comparison of plural/singluar forms and relates more to semantic interpretation/semantics.

And, even if you get it down to a very precise singluar vs plural term, the meaning can be quite different than just singluar vs plural. EG: "blue balls".

In terms of key word / phrase promotion, I'd go for what is used most commonly in the business and by customers (if it can be determined). And, hedging of bets would say don't place all of your eggs in one basket!

Also, I don't think G handles singular vs plural consistenly in different areas (e.g. strict search vs use of AdWords).