Stop words or not??.

Hello,

I have a site at The Business Web Pages , my problem is, people can find it in most of the search engines using search term-->
thebusinesswebpages, and that brings up the site, but if I use --> the business web pages <--, my site just does not show up anywhere???, why is this??. is it because "the" is a stop word??, I have the term in my headings, titles, alts, what else do i need to do???, ive been trying for 6 months!, so any help and advice would be great!!!.

Thanks!!, and merry christmas!!!.

No. It is because the phrase " the business web pages" is very competitive. Very often, a site's name or a business name is very similar to a generic phrase. Say if your company is named "SEO Company" and if you do a search of "SEO Company", there are millions of results. So it will be hard for someone to find your site by searching your business name.

Let's play with this for a moment

the - NOT descriptive

business - broadly descriptive and in general rather irrelavant

web - broadly descriptive and in general rather irrelavant

pages - broadly descriptive and in general rather irrelavant

Every website in any business that has some or all of these terms but in other niche segments will rank for >>the business web pages<<.

It's a moot issue though... you will not gain any notable or enticed traffic even on a position of #1 for >>the business web pages<< and therefore you should not waste time attempting it.

As I see your website it is a directory for businesses in the UK and listed businesses are categorized as Builders, Building Suppliers, Plumbers, Electricians, Architects, Painters, Decorators, etc.

Therefore your best targeted phrases are associated with "UK" and the phrases for the "listed websites"... promoting your clientele better has an inherent advantage of "Word-of-Mouth" and free advertising for you.

you rank #1 thebusinesswebpages b/c nobody optimizes or searches for that. It's one word 'thebusinesswebpages'.

Using stop words should be kept to a minimum in locations where realestate is prime, i.e. title tags. however, you're bound by good english so the odd 'and' or 'the' may be necessary.

djstreet... I think you are likely correct. I often wondered why I never had competition for the keyword '&%^#%#$%^%*&^(*. Maybe nobody else is trying to optimize for it?

Thanks everyone!!!, some great points!, if only i looked at the 755 million competing sites first;)), if I make it too number 1 in the listings for this term, i should be doing this full time .