Google’s New Approach to Synonyms of the Keywords

Google is taking a different approach to tackling synonyms in the search results. If you run a search on Google for say 'Promotional products' you'll notice an interesting thing that it is also showing the results for "Promotional Items".

Together with 'products' Google also highlights 'items' in the search results. This is the new way Google handles synonyms of the keywords. In cases when the search engine thinks that the keyword in your query and the one in the search results are practically one and the same thing, it will highlight the synonym in the search results.

The attractive thing is that the keyword 'items' is highlighted in the URL also. That suggests that Google can go beyond just highlighting keywords. As the technology progresses this approach should be applied to treating synonyms in anchor texts, alt texts, URLs, etc. So a link with “auto repair” in the anchor should affect a site’s ranking for “automobile repair” as well. This is a very logical way for Google to go, because if a site is relevant to those who search for “cell phones, it's no less relevant for those of us looking for “mobile phones”.

This is an enormous step forward for the search engine technology. Because the better search engine recognizes your objective as a searcher, the better results it will give out. And it should certainly make our lives as SEOs much easier. We won’t need to grasp all the synonyms and variations of our keywords. And of course if and when anchor texts in incoming links become effectual for their synonyms, link building will get easier as well.

On the other hand, it maybe a good approach to keep an eye at what synonyms Google acknowledges in your place and make use of it.