During some keyword research recently I was looking further into abbreviations. Lots of product names, company names and general online jargon is abbreviated. As with general search terms, different Googlers will search in different ways. So heres a few seo tips on how to optimise correctly.

So what’s the general rule when a keyword has an abbreviation?

The general rule when it comes to targeting keywords which have an abbreviation version as well is like many other search engine optimisation techniques – it’s about balance. Where staff may use an abbreviation on a day to day basis it doesn’t mean that potential customers know what you mean.

How do I adopt that SEO strategy?

It’s important to encourage onsite content writers to use balance. It can be important to research search volumes for your keywords beforehand. Tip: You can do this using the Google keyword tool. Although the Google keyword tool is only an indicator it can help you to understand how users are searching for your content.
The next step is to incorporate those different keywords within your content at a proximity of about 5%. But don’t overdo it or it will be seen as keyword stuffing (which is a big no no).

S.E.O. or SEO?

Some people search for abbreviations using punctuation such as full stops or dashes, but please beware that Google states it ignores punctuation such as this when performing searches.
Therefore if I were to search for “sustainable S.E.O” and “sustainable SEO” the results are as follows:

From the above screenshots you can see that Google has provided the same results for both keywords. So the SEO tip here is don’t worry about optimising towards the Googlers using full stops as it will not favour your site anymore or less.