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  4. Special Characters in Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

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Special Characters in Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

Technical SEO
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  • ZAG
    ZAG Subscriber last edited by Jul 12, 2013, 10:38 AM

    Do special characters, such as the "&" symbol or a "," in title tags and meta descriptions negatively affect your ranking in search engines? Any feedback is much appreciated.

    Thank you!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • donford
      donford last edited by Jul 12, 2013, 1:05 PM Jul 12, 2013, 1:05 PM

      They will not negatively effect your SEO. In general the pipe character " | " is used to separate title segments. Further situations make sense as well like "&" is used to shorten "and" since "and" is generally of no value. Thus, "&" saves you 2 characters.

      For example the title of this page is:

      Special Characters in Title Tags & Meta Descriptions | Moz Q&A

      Hope this helps,

      Don

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • ZAG
        ZAG Subscriber @BrightHealth last edited by Jul 12, 2013, 11:55 AM Jul 12, 2013, 11:55 AM

        Interesting information. Thank you.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • BrightHealth
          BrightHealth last edited by Jul 12, 2013, 11:18 AM Jul 12, 2013, 11:18 AM

          For your reference:

          • http://moz.com/community/q/is-it-ok-to-use-encoded-special-characters-in-meta-titles
          • http://moz.com/community/q/are-ampersands-in-title-tags-helpful-or-harmful
          • http://moz.com/community/q/using-commas-in-the-tittle-tag

          The general thought is that they will take up valuable ranking landscape, since your title lengths are limited to begin with.

          watch?v=jHSqLYUPq8w

          ZAG 1 Reply Last reply Jul 12, 2013, 11:55 AM Reply Quote 2
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