: Which is good to target, singular or plural keyword? Which keyword is better for targeting and on-page optimization, singular or plural? Like "baseball bat" or "baseball bats"?

@Harper822

I do recommend to conduct some analysis for this. Keywords with most traffic doesn't always mean that there is gold. Get what I mean?

OK here we go - example only:


baseball bat - 5k monthly searches with 20 monthly conversion/s.
baseball bats - 10k monthly searches with only 2 monthly conversion/s.


Perhaps, an experiment would probably a good idea buddy.

So, to answer the question above, you must conduct a test for you to answer your own question.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Steve110

The one for which your content is the better search result. Search engine users expect different content when searching for singular or plural keywords.


Singular keyword content examples:


A general description what a baseball bat is (~ the wikipedia article)
An article or shopping page for the single best baseball bat in the world (everyone agrees about).


Plural keyword content examples:


A comparison of currently tested baseball bats
A list of the ten most popular baseball bats in history



2. The one you are more likely to rank well (implies #1 )

Vote Up Vote Down

@Eichhorn148

Google usually shows differing search results when people search for the singular vs the plural. So SEO has to be done separately for the different terms.

Start by figuring out which version (singular or plural) has the higher search volume. Use the Adwords Keyword Tool to compare search volumes. Make sure to select "[Exact]" as the "Match Type" in the left hand column. Doing so, I find the global monthly searches for your example and "baseball hat":


baseball bat: 18,100
baseball bats: 18,100
baseball hat: 2,900
baseball hats: 6,600


So for "bats" target both the singular and the plural, for the "hats" start with the plural and consider the singular secondly.

To target multiple keywords:


Use both version in the page title if you can write it in such a way that sounds natural. Its hard to do with singular and plural though.
Use both versions within the text of the page.
Create several pages that explore the topic and use both versions. For example pages with titles such as:

BrandX Baseball Bats
Which BrandX Baseball bat hits the furthest?
BrandX Baseball Bat Reviews
Compare Baseball Bats: BrandX vs BrandY
Baseball bat weight by player age

Vote Up Vote Down