To "S" or not to "S"?

14 years ago

1) Make a search (eg. Wordtracker) to see which has the higher search volume. Don't use Overture as it does not differentiate between singular and plural.

2) check the competition on Google

Code:

[plural]

Code:

[singular]

3) Find the R/S Ratio and decide the winner..

But overall, domain selection has never been a big issue for me. It's the content and the frequency of your update on the site that make the difference.

Cheers!

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Carl Donovan 14 years ago

Originally Posted by waken

Cheers!

Thanks, Waken. I've done the research (thoroughly, I hope!). Singular gets 4x the searches as plural.

My suspicion is that singular will optimize for singular only, while plural will optimize for both. Or is that comparable to p**ssing up a rope?

This is my first IM site and the one that will decide if it's something I'm going to pursue. As such, I want everything to go as smoothly as possible. When I'm the next internet gazzilionare, I'll be a bit less worried about trivia
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- waken 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Quarl421
  
  This is my first IM site and the one that will decide if it's something I'm going to pursue.
  
  Dear,
  Got what you mean.. but
  
  you'll soon realize that perfection on one site is one of the biggest barrier to really make it big online. Don't get obsessed with ONE site. People make money with multiple sites.
  
  And unless you know IM thoroughly, JV or able to get somebody with a list to help your product launches, starting your first site in the IM niche and to use it as a determiner may not be appropriate. Just my personal experience..
  
  Good luck.
  
  Thanks
  
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  Carl Donovan 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by waken
  
  starting your first site in the IM niche and to use it as a determiner may not be appropriate. Just my personal experience..
  
  Good luck.
  
  Well sure. It's not as though I'm hanging my entire future on this one site.
  
  But surely you got started with one site, not hundreds. When you saw that your site got traffic and then eventually started making money, it's probably how you decided it was worth pursuing, right?
  
  The point is to learn, learn, learn some more and take action. In taking action, we come to know what we don't know. "If you build it they will come" seems to be the mantra in IM. And yet, statistics such as "97% of IM neophytes will never make a dime" are plentiful here on WF.
  
  I'd like to know that I've done everything I can to discover the best method for optimizing a site, in order to have a snowball's chance at making a dime or two.
  
  I hope that doesn't sound snippy. It's certainly not intended to be. I very much appreciate your responses. I'm just trying to clarify my intentions.
  
  Thanks
  
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AlanGNW

14 years ago

Why not just buy both if they are available and appropriate?

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Carl Donovan 14 years ago

Originally Posted by AlanSLV

Why not just buy both if they are available and appropriate?

Well, I don't know. I've also read in the forums of people taking that approach and splitting content between the two. I'm curious to know if that offers any real advantage.

Waken up there doesn't spend a lot of energy on URL's, others will buy both and optimize. There seem to be as many approaches as there are people trying to squeeze a living out of the internet!

I'm just trying to get a foothold here...

Originally Posted by AlanSLV

Why not just buy both if they are available and appropriate?

Alan,

If you were to choose this approach, would you build both? Or, would you build one and set up a redirect from the other? I know a 301 doesn't help searches but, at least, I would own the real estate so another IM type (craftier than I) doesn't develop the other and win the traffic with better tools.
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Gary King

14 years ago

As @awaken suggests, you can check to see if there's a big skew in the amount of searches between them, but otherwise, consider how the typical target visitor would search.

If the average person would search for the singular, go for that, if plural, add the "s".

e.g. - Blue Widget vs. Blue Widgets... if they are sold in a bag of 20, use the plural, if it's one item, use the singular.

If still no idea which way to go, use the singular form - it's shorter. ;-)

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Wechito

14 years ago

I think plural will optimize for both singular and plural. So, I will buy the plural domain.
You can of course buy both and do a 301 redirect. I have no prove of Google penalizing it. At least when you use the 301 to redirect from one domain to another in a multiple domain hosting.

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awmi

14 years ago

Another thing to consider is the popularity of the singular and plural forms of the word.

For example you are more likely to hear someone say pants rather than pant. (local searches: pants - 24,900,000 v pant - 2,740,000). It's more likely you would say shoes rather than shoe (local searches: shoes - 185,000,000 v shoe - 20,400,000)

I would opt for the plural form in most cases. But I would buy both forms if cost is not an issue.

Thanks
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Carl Donovan

14 years ago

Originally Posted by awmi

Another thing to consider is the popularity of the singular and plural forms of the word.

For example you are more likely to hear someone say pants rather than pant. (local searches: pants - 24,900,000 v pant - 2,740,000). It's more likely you would say shoes rather than shoe (local searches: shoes - 185,000,000 v shoe - 20,400,000)

I would opt for the plural form in most cases. But I would buy both forms if cost is not an issue.

Tony,

Great point. This particular niche is more of a singular form (i.e. not "pants").

In addition to the obvious SEO choices, I'm also considering semantics. As in "product.com" might refer to a single product for sale, whereas "products.com" might seem to the reader more like a site that will discuss the virtues of various types of similar products. If the searcher is looking for info on a product, they might be more inclined to click the latter.

I realize it might be nitpicky, and likely a non-issue. But we're really practicing a subtle form of manipulation here, aren't we?

Thanks
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awmi

14 years ago

I hear you. In that case I would take the singular word if available and I would add a few prefixes and suffixes to that singular word.

Then I would buy hosting with a host that offers "unlimited" domain hosting and set up as many sites as I can. If the word is "boating" then I would consider registering:

learnboating.com
boatingcentral.com
boatingguide.com
boatingtips.com
boatingtricks.com
boatingworld.com
boatingsecrets.com
boatingforprofit.com
allaboutboating.com

Get the idea?

I recently signed up with bluehost.com so I can have many domains with the same host.

Beware UNLIMITED is NOT unlimited. Read the TOS.

Originally Posted by Quarl421

Tony,

Great point. This particular niche is more of a singular form (i.e. not "pants").

In addition to the obvious SEO choices, I'm also considering semantics. As in "product.com" might refer to a single product for sale, whereas "products.com" might seem to the reader more like a site that will discuss the virtues of various types of similar products. If the searcher is looking for info on a product, they might be more inclined to click the latter.

I realize it might be nitpicky, and likely a non-issue. But we're really practicing a subtle form of manipulation here, aren't we?

Thanks

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Wechito

14 years ago

I agree with you, Quarl421. Start with no more than two sites and focus on learn a system that works for you. After you feel confortable with your system, start building more sites. That is, at least, what worked for me.

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sbucciarel

Banned 14 years ago

If I'm making a money site and want to keep the scumbag domain squatters at a distance, I will buy both in .com, .net, .org and .info.

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BruceTeague

14 years ago

There are also a lot more things to consider for the seo of your site than just the url. If you get the main keyword the difference of an s or not is negligible. ie You buy pant.com but you use the word pants the majority of the time Google will recognize that your site is also about the plural.

In fact I have a couple of sites where they are the plural. The are both for the same type of product but different cities. The top two "relevant" words in Webmaster tools are the singular and plural version. Oddly enough one has the plural as more relevant while the other has the singular as the more relevant keyword. I optimized one for the plural and my business partner optimized the other for singular. The plural in the site title played very little in Googles choice of which was more relevant. It had more to do with the rest of the SEO.

I would pick the one that gets searched more or go with semantics. I wouldn't fret over it much although I understand you asking. I fret over the details too often myself.

Bruce Teague

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Carl Donovan

14 years ago

Thanks for the input, everybody. I really dig this forum!

Thanks

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To "S" or not to "S"?

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