"Keyword" compared to Keyword

[stevelibby]

Why is it that if search google i do better with "widget" than just widget?

[tedster]

I've noticed this too, and can't pretend to understand why a single word, searched as an "exactphrase" would be handled in a different way than a simpel search on the same word. I can only say the obvious -- that's a very rare search so I can't see a practical value in watching it. However, understanding it, if anyone does, might give us some added insight into Google's workings.

[stevelibby]

Could it have something to do with searching hyperlink or not?
I have just done a search and without the "" the page i wanted came up, however with "" it returns a totally different page in my site?
Could it also have something to do with font size?

[stakaman]

Pretty simple.

"widget" is exact match, so it returns sites with that keyword/keyphrase only and the order that it appears in ie "blue widget"

Your site is doing better for the exact match because Google does not think that it is strong enough for widget (broad match).

Does that help?

[stakaman]

To clarify, exact match searches usually return less search results.

Your website is performing for less results but going above the 'sandbox' threshold (or whatever you want to call it) for more results stops it from performing.

Also exact match has a tendency to favour keyword density (and stuffing), volume of anchor text etc.

[luckychucky]

Just throwing this out there -
Maybe a search within quote marks cuts out things like Latent Semantic Indexing. In other words, you're telling Google to get literal instead of creative. Instead of looking for sites which contain widgety-related meanings and associations, it's looking straight out for just widgets, rather than all widgetesque permutations and curves.

[stakaman]

I agree with luckychucky's theory plus the stuff I mentioned above

[stevelibby]

so if your looking good fopr a search with " " aroung it then the page is good, what could you then do to improve on standard searches?

[stakaman]

You need to keep reading WebMasterWorld stevelibby plus try to find more info on search engine optimisation (Links, content, HTML structure etc).

[stevelibby]

i have had my web site since 2000 was getting traffic of 50 -60`000 visitors per month and since sept last year has slowly dropped and is now almost dead, but i cannot get to the bottom as to why it has gone like this.!

[doc_z]

Maybe a search within quote marks cuts out things like Latent Semantic Indexing.

This seems to be true, it seems to be the same as using a plus, i.e. +widget.

[stevelibby]

what is "Latent Semantic Indexing"

[luckychucky]

To the best of my (limited) understanding, LSI analyzes the entire context of a website to determine not just the keywords but also the words associated with those keywords in all the other text on the site. It compares this contextual text against databases of keywords-within-context it has found in other related-topic websites. This way it determines the relevance of keywords as they are asociated with all the other text which typically surrounds those keywords on other sites, and not just taken on their own as mere keyword-stuffing. Something like that, anyway.

More knowledgeable heads than I might want to chime in here.

[stakaman]

good enough description for me

[oddsod]

LSI [en.wikipedia.org]