Link Building Tip

Posted by Pixelhead

Here is another link building tip that you may or may not have considered. Do you build links to keywords with both capitals and lowercase? I did a search for one of my clients, and noticed there is a difference between the serps when a capital is used instead of when it isn’t.

For example, try the keyword “tyco”. The first page serps(search engine results page) are almost identical, but look at the number 10 spot on both SERP pages.

Sure it maybe only number 10, but the number 10 spot I have heard often yields better results than the middle numbers.

My wife, Lizzie and I have a little bit of a disagreement on this issue. She thinks

that the lowercase would be searched more frequently. I myself, believe that, I like a lot of other people, would use the capitalized version just out of habit. But I could be wrong. I also realize that IM and text messaging may have changed this behavior, so there is a possibility that many more searches may be conducted with the lower case version.

I have not gone into word tracker to test this out, but have noticed the difference in the serps on more than one occasion for more than one keyword.

My suggestion is that you should build links to both lower and upper case versions of your keywords as one may get more searches than the other, but you still want to add them on in order to grab the long tail.

My question to you is:

Do you search with Capital letters?

Technorati Tags: link building,SEO,keywords

Written by Pixelhead on August 6th, 2008 with 36 comments.
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36 comments

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ZenElements
#1. August 6th, 2008, at 10:40 PM.

I’ve never really noticed to much difference in my results when using capitals or not using capitals. Intersting stuff though. I will have to maybe launch a little investigation of my own on this.

I am personally more of a lower case searcher, both mobile or desktop/laptop.

Thanks for sharing and keep us posted on your results!

Alex | Zen

Pixelhead
#2. August 6th, 2008, at 11:19 PM.

Thanks for stopping by Alex. I in particular noticed this when I was doing some optimizing for local search. Use of both lower and upper case with place names or things that normally would be capitalized.

ZenElements
#3. August 6th, 2008, at 11:34 PM.

A pleasure, Nethead =]

Two searches I did recently involved targeting my website and the blog.

1. ‘Plurk CSS’ & ‘plurk css’ - Showed little in the way of change for me over the entire first page results.
2. ‘Scotland Graphic Design’ & ‘scotland graphic design’ – Interestingly did show plus one place movement with the capitals, showing there could be some truth in your theory.

I know though that search results geographically differ as well, so it is not always easy to analyse such theories but I shall certainly keep an eye and ear out with my future search results.

Alex | Zen

Summer Weight Loss
#4. August 7th, 2008, at 12:58 AM.

That is very interesting. I normally search using lower case and never think about capitals. I think I will try both in the future just to test your theory. Thanks for the information.

Lucetry

Nicole Price
#5. August 7th, 2008, at 5:56 AM.

By and large, I do not use the Capital letters except in the case of proper nouns. In fact, I find no difference as a searcher when I use either form. Just a few moments before I started this comment I had to search for “jersey”. After reading this post, I tried both versions with exactly the same results.

Rick’s dofollow list
#6. August 7th, 2008, at 2:30 PM.

This is very interesting and the thought has never even crossed my mind that there may be a difference in results when people use capital letters. I just hope it isn’t true to be honest. As if it isn’t hard enough to rank for all the variations of keywords and phrases already.

Pixelhead
#7. August 7th, 2008, at 2:39 PM.

I really think that if you vary your link text, it will only help you to rank for your main key word. So if I want to rank for “Tyco”, building links to “tyco” will only help with the primary target keyword.

JBO
#8. August 7th, 2008, at 3:18 PM.

I would imagine anyone searching would almost always use lower case but I think it is quite often that product name, as an example would be capitalised - this is an important consideration to make when optimising for the SERPS

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#9. August 7th, 2008, at 3:43 PM.

I think it doesn’t matter either to use or not use the Caps

Pixelhead
#10. August 7th, 2008, at 4:10 PM.

If I was showing up in the number 10 spot for “tyco” something even more competitive I would differ about its importance.

Wayne
#11. August 7th, 2008, at 4:30 PM.

Like I mentioned in the video comment, I normally use all lowercase letters when performing a search. It would amaze me if search engines actually take the casing into consideration actually. Of course, in code, case matters, but I wouldn’t think it would matter for ‘everyday’ text like search terms for users

Paul
#12. August 7th, 2008, at 7:06 PM.

Interesting, I typically use lower case. Sometimes I capitalize the first letter in a key term “Home Builders”. I always thought that Google didn’t look at whether or not it was upper case or lower case. But then I never really gave it much thought. I believe it since Google looks at everything else.

Davin
#13. August 8th, 2008, at 5:05 AM.

Before reading your post I also think that the result are not considered the letter used…But, I use to put capital on person name, places, and anything else that need to be typed that way. For sentences or phrase I use lower case. And like you said, I guess that comes from my typing habbit.

Architect Jobs
#14. August 8th, 2008, at 10:46 AM.

This is very interesting.Thanks for sharing.

prestamos personales
#15. August 9th, 2008, at 10:30 AM.

I’ve noticed this difference! I guess the question is also how does it vary over the three major search engines?

Pays to live green
#16. August 9th, 2008, at 12:36 PM.

I would have thought that case sensitivity would never make a difference when it comes to searching, but I guess I am wrong. Thanks for the great tip.

Sharepoint CMS
#17. August 9th, 2008, at 2:45 PM.

Huh, interesting… everybody knows typos but Google redirects you to the correct term anyways in most cases. And I’ve heard that when people specifically targets typos as keywords, it might even punish their serps. This is less blatant and you should use capital anyways as that’s more proper… Nice tip…

Pixelhead
#18. August 9th, 2008, at 3:35 PM.

Pays to Live Green, It does not seem to happen all the time, but in some instances I have noticed a difference.

Free Directories
#19. August 9th, 2008, at 7:45 PM.

I always search using lower case letters.

Many incontext links use lower case letters, while sidebar and footer links usually capitalize the first letter of each word.

There is a lot of debate about this topic. When it comes down to it, my backlinks have an appearance that is suitable for those that view the link - not the search engines. Having backlinks in all caps would not be very pleasing to the eye! Having said that, it does pay to vary the anchor text. But this is largely dependent on where the links are (incontext or not).

Chris
#20. August 9th, 2008, at 9:51 PM.

I search with all lowercase all the time. But I have heard several different strategies for lower and uppercase. It makes sense to vary what you are doing.

Eva White
#21. August 11th, 2008, at 7:39 AM.

How simple and it must be effective, just use capitals and small alphabets for keywords. Cool tip. Specially when most of the time we use lower case during our searches.

Nissan auto parts
#22. August 11th, 2008, at 11:48 AM.

I support the capitals theory. Many people have that habbit to capitalize the first letter. My parents always search this way and I think that many newbies also do so. Varying makes sense.

Lloyd Lopez
#23. August 12th, 2008, at 12:48 AM.

Hmmmm… I use both but majority of it is in lower case. I never did notice any difference but I guess that’s just me.

sweating causes
#24. August 12th, 2008, at 2:02 AM.

I don’t think it is matter a lot, but when it comes to natural link building, you want to mix both links so the search engines don’t raise an alert. It is like variation in the link text.

Laura mom of a healthy family
#25. August 12th, 2008, at 2:26 AM.

That was a good observation. I haven’t notice that there is a bit of difference in the search result. I’m more of a lowercase person when searching.
Thanks for this information and I will also do some test and researches regarding this.

techy
#26. August 12th, 2008, at 1:14 PM.

The CAPS really doesnt matter i dont think. But i could be wrong, i’m just a little person

Pasadena Auto Repair
#27. August 12th, 2008, at 6:53 PM.

Wow, I ran a search for my keyword term, ‘Auto Repair Pasadena’, and it appeared a page later in the search ranking.

Interesting info.

Although, I don’t think it makes too much difference, unless you’re search engine ranking places on the 5th page…

Thanks,
-Michael McClurg

Naruto
#28. August 12th, 2008, at 7:12 PM.

I never actually thought about it but it will not make much difference as i think so … anyways nice tip and interesting post

____________________
Naruto Ninja

Mention from Pixelheadonline.com
#29. August 13th, 2008, at 4:40 PM.

Link Building Tip - Use Stop Words - My Online World: week, I did a Link Building Tip post, and I was asked by Wayne of WayneJohn.com, what my goals ...

?ark? dinle
#30. August 13th, 2008, at 5:38 PM.

I really think that if you vary your link text.Although, I don’t think it makes too much difference, unless you’re search engine ranking places on the 5th page

scatterhaiku
#31. August 13th, 2008, at 7:58 PM.

i only search using lowercase letters. still, that’s quite a fascinating observation in your post. always thought the case makes no difference.

Disney Guide
#32. August 14th, 2008, at 8:43 PM.

Never even considered lower case would be treated differently to uppercase. Thinking about it I always use lower case when googling.

Bronson Tang
#33. August 15th, 2008, at 12:45 PM.

Things that make you go hmmmm…. I did not know that there was that much of a difference.. thanks..

Jane
#34. August 15th, 2008, at 7:54 PM.

I never even heard of this capital letter thing … eye opener. Now I’ll have to rethink everything. Great post, keep ‘em coming!

prestamos personales
#35. November 3rd, 2008, at 6:01 PM.

I’ve never really noticed to much difference in my results when using capitals

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#36. November 18th, 2008, at 6:09 PM.

I heard that you should use capitols on the first letters in the title tag. I’ve noticed that google doesn’t really rank all lower case letter title tags well. I’m not sure if it is fact though.

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