Does the Order of Keywords Matter in a Title AND in Google Searches

1. 54

   janderson99posted 12 years ago

   I thought that the order of keywords in a Title did not matter and likewise that the order of keywords entered for a Google Search did not matter.
   
   However when you do a search for - Green Tea Health Benefits (A) - and for - Health Benefits of Green Tea (B) - both without quotes the results are quite different.
   
   The following is a summary of the rankings where the order for B shows the relative position in the list for A. For example the 6th one listed in A is the 10th in B etc. - O means that the item in B does not appear in A.
   
   A    B
   1    2
   2    1
   3    3
   4    6
   5    5
   6   10
   7   11
   8    0
   9    9
   10   0
   11   0
   12   0
   13   0
   14  16
   15  15
   16  18
   17   0
   18   0
   19  14
   20  17
   
   Another aspect to consider is the auto-complete function in Google which makes suggestions as the user types in the search terms. This will obviously affect the keyword phrase that is searched for. Likewise the order of the keywords entered will affect the pathway offered by the tool.
   
   For example the auto suggestions for green tea doesn't include 'health' as an option
   
       green tea
       green tea benefits
       green tea weight loss
       green tea caffeine
       green tea restaurant
       green tea cake
       green tea diet
       green tea ice cream
       green tea tablets
       green tea extract
   
   How does one know what the majority of uses will search for: Green Tea Health Benefits OR Health Benefits of Green Tea?
   
   Should the Title be 'Green Tea Benefits for Health'
   
   So how does one optimize the order of the keywords and their relative position in the title to maximize traffic for a longtail keyword phrase?
   
   Any suggestions or resources for this?
   
   Cheers

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   1. 86

      Mandrake_1975posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, word order matters.  When you type in a google search phrase it will search for the words in that exact order before it searches for them separately (if it even searches for them separately).
      
      The best thing to do is to pick the word order you believe is most often used or which is more likely to get you to the top of the search results (depends on what you are after) and then use different word orders in your hub and your summary.  This way you will cover all your bases.

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   2. 61

      deblippposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Google's algorithms pay attention to word order, word proximity, and word density. "tea green" titles will *eventually* show up in searches for "green tea," but not as high. The same is true for "green & black tea." The words are proximate to one another but not *as* close as an exact match.
      
      All other factors being equal (as if!), "green & black tea" would show up ahead of "green & black & chai tea" on a search for "green tea."

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2. 91

   Susana Sposted 12 years ago

   Word order is important. Use google's keyword tool and make sure you select phrase or exact match (instead of broad). This will show you how many people search for the phrase in that word order.
   
   Here's a good explanation: http://www.layeredthoughts.com/keyword- … olume-data
   
   Make sure you use the selected keyphrase as near to the beginning of your title and url as possible and keep the exact word order.

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3. 79

   daybreakposted 12 years ago

   I had a related question and hoped other hubbers can give opinions on this issue.
   
   What if we would like to obtain traffic for two very similar search phrases, for example "bulk green tea" and "bulk matcha tea ".
   
   Are we actually loosing traffic if we create a url and title for "bulk matcha green tea"?
   
   Can anyone expand on how search engines will treat such a situation?
   
   Perhaps another way to look at this is "Can a less accurate but broader title sacrifice some traffic for a single niche, yet gain overall traffic via the sum of a wide range of search phrases.

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   1. 91

      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I would probably write two pages - one for each phrase. But if I did want to combine them, for a homepage for example, then I would use the higher traffic phrase as is and use the words from the other phrase around it or to supplement it.
      
      E.g. if "bulk green tea" is the higher volume phrase I would write the title something like this: Buy Bulk Green Tea and Matcha Tea at BulkTeaDirect.com
      
      This keeps the high volume phrase intact and at the beginning of the title, but also increases the chances of ranking for bulk matcha tea as well.
      
      For the url I would use: bulk-green-tea-matcha-tea (main phrase at beginning)
      
      Then I would make sure that internal and external links to the page were anchored with the text "bulk green tea" and "bulk matcha tea".

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      1. 66

         Rosie2010posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         thank you once again.  Susana, you rock!

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4. 62

   Peter Owenposted 12 years ago

   Can you accomplish similar results by having a general URL such as Bulk Tea but then writing several articles ie 1. bulk green tea, 2. bulk matcha tea 3. tea green and matcha??

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5. 91

   Susana Sposted 12 years ago

   It depends on how you want to lay things out. On Hubpages you could have one generic article on bulk tea, which then linked to separate articles on bulk green tea, bulk matcha tea etc. Of course each article would then have it's own url and title and there would be no need to combine phrases. This is probably what I would do. 3 or 4 phrases and 3 or 4 pages all interlinked with the appropriate anchor text.
   
   On your own website you could have a domain, subdomain or category called bulktea and then create articles on each type of bulk tea all linked from the bulktea area of the website. Again each page would have it's own url and title.

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   1. 54

      janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I have added an update to this as a Hub
      
      http://hubpages.com/hub/Channelling-by- … l-Keywords

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      1. 91

         Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's an interesting hub. Using search assist is a good way to find potential keywords - personally I still check the search volume of those phrases in the KT.

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   2. 66

      Rosie2010posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I put too much information in some of my hubs, and tried to put them all in the title.   They are lost in google search.  I am getting frustrated.  So I am going to take them apart and see what happens.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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6. 66

   Rosie2010posted 12 years ago

   @janderson99 - thank you so much for posting this thread.  It helped me too.

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7. 91

   Susana Sposted 12 years ago

   Glad it was helpful to you

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