Hey guys,
I've been trying to find an answer to a question but so far I have had no luck... I hope with your help I will be able to solve my problem....

The question is simple; does Google differenciate terms with apostrophes ? For example, which word would it be better to work on with in page factors:

Mother's day
or
Mothers day

The overture suggestion tool seems to not pick up the apostrophes and when the second term is entered the first one comes up... As a result how can it be possible to find out what users are looking for most ?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Sam

From what I've seen, Google does differentiate a bit between the two, but not enough to worry about it. Simply focus on the term that has the most traffic, and the additional term will most likely fall right into place as well. The rankings will probably fluctuate a bit, but it should be only a couple of spots for better or worse.

RyanN

From what I've seen, Google does differentiate a bit between the two, but not enough to worry about it. Simply focus on the term that has the most traffic, and the additional term will most likely fall right into place as well. The rankings will probably fluctuate a bit, but it should be only a couple of spots for better or worse.

RyanN

Thanks for the insight ryan, how would you go about finding out which keywords gets the most traffic taking in consideration that the overture suggestion tool does not differentiate between the two keywords ?

Thanks

The info you need can be found using other traffic estimating softwares. I personally use www.wordtracker.com and it seems to give me a good idea of what to expect. Keep in mind though, that most traffic indicators aren't spot on and are simply a good barometer of where to start. Once you get things implemented, simply track it to see which one ends up working best for you.

RyanN

...how would you go about finding out which keywords gets the most traffic taking in consideration that the overture suggestion tool does not differentiate between the two keywords?

krooga - The quick answer is that I'd use the Google tool... but Google doesn't give you numbers unless you run a test campaign.

Once upon a time, Overture (then called GoTo) did make these useful differentiations. Here's a sample of some old research from 1999 for the phrase "women's keyword" etc. (I've substituted "widgets" for "keyword" in this particular example and hope it isn't too suggestive. It's a G-rated item.)

I remember at the time that I thought the results were a sad comment on the use of the English language. They do present problems for onpage optimization. Unfortunately, I didn't save data for "woman's widgets."

12415 womens widgets
1138 women's widgets
172 woman widgets
29 widgets woman
21 widgets - women's
18 widgets womens

Here's how the Google AdWords Keyword Tool sorts the same queries today. Though it doesn't give numbers, I trust the order. Google's demographic today appears to be less grammatically challenged than was GoTo's 6 years ago. Note that I've left out the 3 and 4 word queries the tool also suggests.

women's widgets
womens widgets
woman's widgets
woman widgets
widgets womens
widgets women's
women s widgets

These samples go beyond your question a bit, but I'd guess that the apostrophe is commonly omitted.