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Google now shows at the bottom of the search result a message that these results include the word “store”. Show results that include only “shops”. It’s interesting that this same inclusion doesn’t happen if you search for “stores” or “store”, it only happens when you search for “shops”. This could be that Google is still struggling to link “Store” to the multiple Synonyms for “store” that could include: abundance, accumulation, backlog, cache, fount, fountain, fund, hoard, inventory, lode, lot, mine, nest egg, plenty, plethora, provision, quantity, reserve, reservoir, savings, spring, stock, stockpile, treasure, wares, wealth, well.
So Google is able to match a narrow synonym but not yet a broad synonym such as “store”.
Very interesting.
I couldn’t replicate this though. What was the exact search phrase that you used, David?
Also it may be that they are still testing this (displaying this selectively).
It seems to do it for a few variations such as “rug shops“, but I tried a number of other variations such as clothes or toy shops and it did not work. I did find it also worked for “tile shops” and “carpet shops”. So I assume there must be something unique about those types of search queries that Google is able to understand and see a benefit if it broadens the search term. One other curve ball is that Google is boosting it’s search volume for those terms for some commercial reason.
Interesting. Not showing it on my end (in Virginia, USA) for these phrases. Must be geographical, or something else.