Do Abbreviations Hurt SEO Results?
-
We have certain products that we've abbreviated since it's a bit too long. For example, the word Fair Trade Organic is one of our categories and we abbreviate it to FTO.
If I put FTO on our meta tag titles and links instead of the actual word, would that provide a weaker result?
-
If it's a commonly used acronym then both the full keyword phrase and the accronym should be included in the SEO optimization process.
-
Your Uncle Dan would be proud. It is indeed an acronym.
Your suggestions do make a lot of sense. I shall try expanding the word to Fair Trade.... then combine the acronym version of that to cover more ground. I'll do some trial and error.
Thanks!
-
Hello there,
My Uncle Dan would be upset if I did not correct you in stating that FTO for Fair Trade Organic is actually an acronym and not an abbreviation. Uncle Dan also got mad when I used to talk about my GPS system, but that is another story.
There is an acronym HTML tag http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_acronym.asp but I am unaware that Google actively uses it. I would answer your question as follows.
- Is there search volume for the acronym and when you search for that acronym, what type of pages does Google show? In other words are people searching for it and does Google know what it means. When I search FTO https://www.google.com/search?q=FTO I get a pages related to the FTO gene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTO_gene that is related to obesity and also Fresh Touring Origination a sports coupe from Mitsubishi
I tried "FTO vegetables" but I got instructions on how to make lacto fermented vegetables - I could not find FTO on the page with the instructions though. Results 5 and 6 looked to have to do with fair trade vegetables. I Googled "FTO food" and got sites for "Fresh to Order Food" and "Food Truck Outfitters Atlanta"
My point is, if most people don't use FTO to represent Fair Trade Organic, then Google probably will not, but it still may understand it in the context of use with other words. It may be that FTO is searched a bunch, but it may not be the searches you want.
- Based on my 30 second assessment above, you may want to consider using the acronym in combination with the words Fair Trade Organic and that would work. You need some variety of the words on the page. That goes without saying. I would not though, use it as the primary words in place like your title tag, h1 etc. Makes more sense in the body of the text on the page.
Specifically, "would it provide a weaker result" ? It depends. I would say for FTO searches, you would probably not show up as Google potentially does not associate FTO with Free Trade Organic. For "Free Trade Organic" (full keyword) related searches, I would use it, but not as much as other keywords that are probably searched more often and are more relevant in the results as you need to vary up your keywords anyway.
Hope this helps!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Relaunching website seo audit
Hi People, We are going to Relaunch the website(https://www.y-axis.com). Url remains the same; the website has good SEO (Ranking, Leads, Traffic...). Website skin (layout, content) is going to change.Hence, would like to know the precautions to secure SEO. Please provide us necessary SEO Checklist for the above request.
Technical SEO | | Anshul.S1 -
SSl and SEO
Does the type of SSL used on a site have any significance to trust and seo ranking?
Technical SEO | | unikey0 -
Seo For Forum Sites
I have forum site.I've opened it 2 months ago.But there is a problem.Therefore my content is unique , my site's keyword ranking constantly changing..Sometimes my site's ranking drops from first 500.After came to 70s. I didn't make any off page seo to my site.What is the problem ?
Technical SEO | | tutarmi0 -
Does anyone use paid seo tools
Hi, i see a lot of people claiming that paid seo tools work, i would like to know if anyone uses them. I have a new site that i am building and i am wondering if there are any good paid tools out there that could help me gain exposure quicker. I get a lot of emails from well known companies promoting their paid tools but have never bought any as i believe you should hear from people who have tried them first. If you feel there are any good paid seo tools out there for help with rankings and link building then i would love to hear about them
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
SEO Audit - Panda
I am looking for a reputable SEO company to help diagnose Panda issues. I am very familiar with SEO and lead an in-house team so I need more than a basic audit. e.g You need unique content
Technical SEO | | WEB-IRS
e.g. You need to create quality content I am looking for someone with a technical mind to help diagnose. Please reach if you have someone in mind.0 -
Differences in Sitemaps SEO wise?
I'm a bit confused about sitemaps. I'm just learning SEO so forgive me if this is a basic question. I've submitted my site to google webmaster using http://pro-sitemaps.com and the sitemap generator it creates. I've also seen sites do this: http://www.johnlewis.com/Shopping/ProductList.aspx and http://www.thesafestcandles.com/site-map.html so I did something similar for my site (www.ldnwicklesscandles.com). You figure you see everyone do it you might as well try it too and hope it works. 😉 So I've done both 1 and 2. Which sitemap is best for SEO purposes or should I do both? Is there any format that should or shouldn't be used for Option 2? Any site examples for good practice would be helpful.
Technical SEO | | cmjolley0 -
Can anyone recommend an SEO friendly Joomla extension to use for SEO on an existing website?
Can anyone recommend an SEO friendly Joomla extension to use for SEO on an existing website? I have downloaded sh404sef but I don't want to change my URL's and make them longer than they are at the moment. Any ideas?
Technical SEO | | Karen_Dauncey0 -
New Forum: SEO considerations.
We're going to add a new forum to our website. We don't anticipate very large volumes of users. I read somewhere in The Art of SEO that forums should be 'built in bbPress'. I'm very much a programming novice so I'm still trying to get to grip with the basics of forums. I'd be grateful to know the main SEO considerations (however basic) that I should tell my web developer who is building the new forum.
Technical SEO | | JacobFunnell0