RuDeDoGg

How do search engines handle plural words like "dogs". Does it take the s off? When I check overture it does, so would using "dog" as an anchor text be better than using the plural form?

+rep to a complete and good answer!

Drake

In Organic or PPC or both?

RuDeDoGg

organic

SeoDave

Plural vs. Singular Keywords, Graphical vs. Text Links, Javascript Menus
Sum:
i) AltaVista considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
ii) AOL considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
iii) Fast considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
iv) Google considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
v) Hotbot first takes its results from Direct Hit and then from Inktomi. Since Direct Hit considers the plural keyword to be the same as the singular keyword, the first few results in Hotbot are the same for both the plural and singular versions of the keyword. However, for the results taken from Inktomi, the results for the singular and plural versions of the keyword are different.
vi) IWon considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
vii) Looksmart considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
viii) Lycos considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
ix) MSN considers the plural keyword to be the same as the singular keyword.
x) Netscape considers the plural keyword to be the same as the singular keyword.
xi) The Open Directory considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.
xii) Yahoo! considers the plural keyword to be different from the singular keyword.



I have always understood this to be true. The top SE's distinguish between plural vs singular.

__________________
"I don't fail - I succeed at finding things that don't work" - Christopher Titus
________________________________________
Fuck Godaddy + HostGator Rocks + Copeac = $$$

SeoDave

In answer to your second question: If you are optimizing for the top engines you'll want to choose which KW is more closely targeted with your niche and what your site is more focused on and then use THAT for your anchor text. Often though, if you are placing in the top SERP's for the plural, you'll get top rankings for the singular as well and vice-versa.

__________________
"I don't fail - I succeed at finding things that don't work" - Christopher Titus
________________________________________
Fuck Godaddy + HostGator Rocks + Copeac = $$$

MyOwnDemon

As far as I know, the only way to tell for sure is to type the word (singular and plural form) into the Search Engine and see how the SE handles it. All the search engines handle this differently.

For example:

With Google, "dog" and "dogs" bring up different results.

With Yahoo, "dog" and "dogs" bring up the same results.

Hope that helped.

__________________

micfire

According to my tests with Google, Google treats them as a different keywords (dogs & dog), but you get equal benefit from both SERP wise. What I mean by this is that Google knows it's relevant also to keyword "dog" if you write "dogs" in your content. I did some tests with plurals in site title with few quite popular keywords where I'm nr. 1 in Google. I changed between singular and plural form in the title and there was no difference in ranking what so ever. I did this in last winter so it could be different now.

If you search for "dog", of course it gives you different search results than "dogs" as it should. With "dog" you can mean a dog picture, one specific dog, etc. With "dogs" you are probably searching info about different breeds etc.