When is a plural not a plural? We make the assumption that individuals who undertake a search know what they are searching for. This often not the case and plurals can be classic example. Not all plurals are true – the question is, have you even considered them.
Let’s take the word baby – is the plural babys, baby’s, or babies. Really, it doesn’t matter. What matters is how a searcher uses the term. I have seen searches for babys bottle, babies bottle and baby’s bottle. If I was selling baby products, what keywords should I be targeting?
Some careful keyword research is called for here, however, even if the search numbers are low, it may be well worth your time to include these anomalies in your keyword lists.
There are many other examples where the use of an apostrophe or the change in spelling may be used to signify a plural. Search engines like Google are becoming smarter in the way they prompt for the correct spelling, however this is not perfect yet, particularly if the user insists that their spelling is correct.
There are many other spelling anomalies that should be researched. Check you keyword lists and see which keywords could have incorrect but common mis-spellings. While the correct plural for baby may be babies, you will be surprised at how many people insist on babys.
