Few words are often ignored by a search engine in search result or queries, those words are referred to as stop words as they do not alter the meaning of the sentence but are added to beautify content. Stop words are basically – articles, conjunctions, preposition, pronouns etc.
They don’t change the meaning of a query and are used to write content or structure them properly.
Many types of research even revealed that 25% of the blog post contain stop words and do not have much relevancy to the topic. These words help a writer compose a beautiful sentence and make short sentences too which is also loved by a search engine.
But while using, you should also consider limiting the stop words usage as excessive words could also impact your brand in the long run. Yes, if you use too much in your content it can hamper how your pages are index.
In these situations, you should be careful how you choose or write your words. Whether you are an expert SEO writer or just a beginner, this guide will help you write stop words in the best way.
Let’s get started!
What is SEO stop words?
Google stop words are often ignored by search engines partially or entirely, therefore while you are writing content, you should be careful with the words you are choosing.
Some of the common SEO stop words list are:
- the
- an
- a
- of
- or
- many
- it,
- for,
- or,
- but,
- in,
- my,
- your,
- our, and
- their.
Search engines don’t focus on stop words much in search queries or results. If you use any SEO plugin for instance Yost SEO plugin, then you will get a suggestion as “your content has excessive stop words, try to remove some of them”.
Here’s how you cam sort this problem out and make your content acceptable by search engines!
SEO Stop words in your content
There are many different reports where marketers say a lot about stop words in SEO.
But, it depends.
Google think that these words take more time and space to process your data when indexing and crawling of pages happen.
Therefore, if you avoid these empty words, Google will save time and space in their databases.
For example, if a person searches for an SEO service in Lucknow.
In this search query, the word “in” does not change the meaning of the query, therefore, Google would leave them out and offer search results such as ”SEO service Lucknow”.
While some users may even type in detail such as “best SEO service in Lucknow”.
After the google algorithm filter the unnecessary words, Google shows “best SEO service Lucknow” search results. The reason already explained above!
SEO Stop Words in Titles
Titles of your blog also contain SEO stop words and when you take out those articles or prepositions, then it is best to leave them as it is.
Though adding them to your content makes your content readable and more interesting as the last thing you want that audience to read and enjoy your content. And, if the title does not make sense then the website could be reported as spammy or unprofessional.
SEO words make more sense in title and headings as these are the elements or keywords that user type in to find content like yours.
Just create a title character limited to 50 to 60 and do not include too many stop words. In case you have used them, then consider revising.
SEO Stop Words in URL Slugs
After you are done writing your title, your URL gets created automatically. Of course, it includes all the words of your title, therefore, you have to edit it and make it SEO friendly by adding only the SEO keyword in your URL and removing additional words.
Also, Google loves short URL and rank short URL higher than long URLs.
SEO Stop Words as Keywords
When you are writing content, you will include keywords and some keywords need additional words like “in”, “the”, “at”, etc. to make it grammatically correct. As we have discussed in the above example how SEO stop words come in between SEO keywords.
If you search “SEO Lucknow”, you’d probably get a list of SEO companies in Lucknow without having to type “in”, still it doesn’t matter.
Now, hope you are more familiar with the stop words and how we should use them while creating content.
You should remove SEO stop words or not?
Experts believe that SEO stop words affect your rankings but it isn’t the only reason for your Google rankings.
Even after the regular change in Google rankings, SEO stop words still plays a very important role in rankings.
Here are a few things what you should try to keep up with SEO stop words:
Don’t affect your content’s readability for theoretical SEO
For instance, take the title of a blog – 8 SEO Mistakes That You Might Be Making Unknowingly
Do you think it would be better if we remove stop words and the title says, “8 SEO Mistakes Making Unknowingly”?
Well, it is not making sense, right?
Instead, you should use your URL SEO friendly and the best you can do with your title is to include the SEO keyword at the beginning of the sentence.
Google understand synonyms
Google is changing its algorithm continuously and trying to be better each time. Therefore, it also smartly understands.
So, instead of eliminating all stop words from your content, try to create a balance between readability and technical SEO, so that both do not get affected as both are equally important.
Conclusion
Hope, now you are clear with what are stop words and know that they do not affect SEO much if you haven’t used excessive of them in the content.
Try to use words in a balance and general way and use only when necessary. Probably, this would be the best practice to follow for SEO.
Tell us in the comments below what you learned from this blog and how you will be using stop words in SEO?
