Can You Optimize for Stop Words in Search Results?

Dec 30, 2009 - 8:39 am 4 by

A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting SEO question. The question is, can you optimize for stop words in Google or other search engines?

His particular example seems flawed, in that he is calling IT a stop word and it is stopping him for optimizing for the query [it companies]. However, when I search for [it companies] in Google, it does seem to figure out, IT here stands for information technology.

But in general, is there a need to optimize for stop words? Do we have more examples of cases? If so, can it be done?

Here is a poll:

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

Update: See Jill's comment below for the issue this SEO has in the thread.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 17, 2025

Sep 17, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Discover Tests Showing X Posts From Just Your Followers?

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:51 am
Other Search Engines

OpenAI Updates Search In ChatGPT: Factuality, Shopping & Formatting

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google: Searchers Want AI Summaries Over Links

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business API Q&A Feature Going Away November 3 (Changes Coming?)

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

New Google Merchant Center Suspension Video Verification

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Tracking Back Links: How Do You Do It?