Stop Words List that are Common in SEO [180+]

ByDeepak Last updated on

Most of the time, search engines ignore stop words.

Not a single sentence, that a human will love to read, can be written without using the stop words like a, the, of, are, can, etc. But if you understand how search engines deal with the stop words, you can sure use them to your advantage while doing SEO.

In this short article, I will quickly explain how you can use stop words for better.

Understanding the stop words

Stop words can be pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc. that we regularly use in our daily lives.

There can be some stop phrases too, for example, “tell me” in the “tell me the current time in London” search query would be a stop phrase.

In short, here’s the thing:

Generally, stop words from the search queries are omitted by the search engines and to optimize your webpage, you need to eliminate those words. Wait… without stop words, the page will be unreadable for the users, there can’t be an article.

But… the goal is to optimize (or rather reduce) the use of stop words from the page title, URL, headings, etc. as long as it feels natural to the users because users should be the main focus of all kinds of SEO practices.

Stop Words Scale

Here’s an old article by Bill Slawski to understand Google’s stop words.

Best stop words practices for SEO

Here are some practices that you may benefit from:

  1. Remove the stop words from the page title as long as it is readable and feels natural to the users
  2. Optimize the usage of stop words in the headings and sub-headings (h2, h3, etc.)
  3. Always remove the stop words from the page URL slug, the shorter the better

The first 2 suggestions might not be suitable in different cases, but the 3rd one is suitable in almost all the cases. You must have heard the SEO advice of keeping the URLs short, removing the stop words from them definitely helps.

To give you an example, you’re writing an article on “What are the goals of SEO?” so instead of keeping your URL slug as site.com/what-are-the-goals-of-seo/, you can make it as site.com/goals-of-seo/.

Removing Stop Words from URL Slug

And, you need to pay special attention when you’re dealing with lots of pages on the site, for example, when you’re creating pages in bulk using Programmatic SEO.

Stop words list

A

  1. a
  2. about
  3. above
  4. actually
  5. after
  6. again
  7. against
  8. all
  9. almost
  10. also
  11. although
  12. always
  13. am
  14. an
  15. and
  16. any
  17. are
  18. as
  19. at

B

  1. be
  2. became
  3. become
  4. because
  5. been
  6. before
  7. being
  8. below
  9. between
  10. both
  11. but
  12. by

C

  1. can
  2. could

D

  1. did
  2. do
  3. does
  4. doing
  5. down
  6. during

E

  1. each
  2. either
  3. else

F

  1. few
  2. for
  3. from
  4. further

H

  1. had
  2. has
  3. have
  4. having
  5. he
  6. he’d
  7. he’ll
  8. hence
  9. he’s
  10. her
  11. here
  12. here’s
  13. hers
  14. herself
  15. him
  16. himself
  17. his
  18. how
  19. how’s

I

  1. I
  2. I’d
  3. I’ll
  4. I’m
  5. I’ve
  6. if
  7. in
  8. into
  9. is
  10. it
  11. it’s
  12. its
  13. itself

J

  1. just

L

  1. let’s

M

  1. may
  2. maybe
  3. me
  4. might
  5. mine
  6. more
  7. most
  8. must
  9. my
  10. myself

N

  1. neither
  2. nor
  3. not

O

  1. of
  2. oh
  3. on
  4. once
  5. only
  6. ok
  7. or
  8. other
  9. ought
  10. our
  11. ours
  12. ourselves
  13. out
  14. over
  15. own

S

  1. same
  2. she
  3. she’d
  4. she’ll
  5. she’s
  6. should
  7. so
  8. some
  9. such

T

  1. than
  2. that
  3. that’s
  4. the
  5. their
  6. theirs
  7. them
  8. themselves
  9. then
  10. there
  11. there’s
  12. these
  13. they
  14. they’d
  15. they’ll
  16. they’re
  17. they’ve
  18. this
  19. those
  20. through
  21. to
  22. too

U

  1. under
  2. until
  3. up

V

  1. very

W

  1. was
  2. we
  3. we’d
  4. we’ll
  5. we’re
  6. we’ve
  7. were
  8. what
  9. what’s
  10. when
  11. whenever
  12. when’s
  13. where
  14. whereas
  15. wherever
  16. where’s
  17. whether
  18. which
  19. while
  20. who
  21. whoever
  22. who’s
  23. whose
  24. whom
  25. why
  26. why’s
  27. will
  28. with
  29. within
  30. would

Y

  1. yes
  2. yet
  3. you
  4. you’d
  5. you’ll
  6. you’re
  7. you’ve
  8. your
  9. yours
  10. yourself
  11. yourselves

Final words

You must understand 2 things: one, the shorter URLs are better, and two, Google shows 50-60 characters long titles in the search results. Now, you can’t let these stop words take all the limelight and hide the main keywords.

Lastly, my advice would be: to aim to reduce the stop words only from the title and URL. Apart from that, it’s not a big deal.

If you have a related query, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Blogging since 2015 and loves writing about business and tech. Follow him on Twitter for interesting insights on blogging, SEO, and affiliate marketing.

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