Google getting smarter at rearranging keywords?

"los angeles widget repair" = "widget repair los angeles"

[MichaelBluejay]

I was about to tell a client that he needs to optimize on both "los angeles widget repair" as well as "widget repair los angeles" because Google treats them differently, and I did those searches so I could point out some of the differences to him, and imagine my surprise to see that results 1-10 are identical for both searches!

I wonder if Google is now smart enough to understand that people searching for "ab + cd" are looking for the same thing as "cd + ab", especially when a geographic term is involved. Or maybe it's just coincidence....

-MBJ-

[ciml]

Michael, I wonder if it was a coincidence or a temporary thing. When I search for widget mycountry and mycountry widget I get very different results.

[MichaelBluejay]

Hard to say. The original search I did still has identical results for #1-10. If I actually use the word widget itself in the searches (I mean the actual word "widget", not using "widget" as a placeholder for the real term), then the results are very similar but not identical. Same deal if I replace "widget" with yet a third thing that can be repaired. I know we can expect the results to be somewhat similar but they seem a little more similar than I would normally expect. Or maybe there's really nothing to all this and it's just coincidence.

If it's not intentional then it probably SHOULD be. Does it serve users' interests for Google to return a different set of results when someone searches for "los angeles widget repair" or "widget repair los angeles"? They're obviously searching for the same thing, why not get the same results?

[amazed]

I noticed that and keyword combinations seem still to be in flux at the different datacenters.

[DerekH]

MichaelBlueJay wrote
>>Does it serve users' interests for Google to return a different set of results when someone searches for "los angeles widget repair" or "widget repair los angeles"? They're obviously searching for the same thing, why not get the same results?

Are they searching for the same thing?
If I wanted my widget repaired locally or failing that I'd replace it, I'd type
Town Widget Repair.
If I wanted my widget repaired, whatever it took, because it was a family heirloom and a widget that was treasured, and a local repair would be handy, I'd type Widget Repair Town.

The difference is subtle, but if the SERPS contained 500 items, it would matter greatly.

DerekH

[ir8Rtist]

I still get different results when I search plurals vs. singulars. Our site ranks #2 with our primary keyword in the singular and #8 with our primary keyword in the plural.

Does Google differentiate between singular and plural words? Does that mean I need to optimize for both?

[nanocet]

>If it's not intentional then it probably SHOULD be. Does it serve users' interests for Google to return a different set of results when someone searches for "los angeles widget repair" or "widget repair los angeles"? They're obviously searching for the same thing, why not get the same results?

---------------------------------------------------

Maybe, but not always.
This is no great example, but in this case:
vacuum cleaner

People are probably looking for something to clean floors.

But in this case:
cleaner vacuum

They might be looking for information about cleaning up the junk floating around in space that the space administrations have left there.

I know, not a good example. but I'm sure there are many others that you wouldn't want the same results for if you just reverse the phrase.

[mcavic]

Maybe, but not always.

Hmm. I always thought that treating keywords differently based on order was a nice feature.

But then again, I guess there are a lot more examples where people want them treated the same.

If you're really looking for a cleaner vacuum, you can put it in quotes.

[mcavic]

Does Google differentiate between singular and plural words? Does that mean I need to optimize for both?

Yep, as far as I know, Google has always treated singular and plural differently. Someone here said that's due to the way that their index is built, and it gives them a much greater searching speed.

[ciml]

ir8Rtist, there's a thread for the plural and singular question [webmasterworld.com].

mcavic, you could use quotes but Google has always been very good for non-skilled searchers. Having a default proximity bonus (the equivalent of the 'NEAR' operator in engines before Google) was a good choice IMO.

[dragonlady7]

could just be that "widget repair los angeles" lends itself to interpretation both ways because few sites actually have either of the two possible phrases sequentially.
Did you inspect the sites that came up?
Did any of them actually say either "Los Angeles Widget Repair" or "Widget Repair Los Angeles", or did most of them just say sentences that had all those words in them in no particular order?
That'd be a good test.
I'm just saying because it's possible that certain phrases aren't necessarily optimized for in order, as entire phrases.
"We're a widget repair shop, generally serving the greater Los Angeles metro area" may not differ significantly to Google over "Located in Los Angeles for 20 years, we are the most trusted widget repair shop in the area."
Y'know what I'm getting at? If they optimized for the phrases separately...

That's my only insight. It is a darn good question, though.

[vincevincevince]

Widgets UK may well be the name of a firm
UK Widgets may well be the name of another firm