Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
'And' vs '&'
-
Hi everyone
This question has been running through my mind since a few days now. Does Google recognise 'and' / '&' as the same?
Say for example my website url is: appleandorange.com and my keyword for my company is Apple & Orange. If i Focus on Apple & Orange for on-page SEO will google also recognise apple and orange ? Or will I have to on-page SEO seperately for Apple and orange?
So for instance if I keep focusing on Apple & Orange will my website appleandorange.com appear on google?
Thanks in advance
-
A quick way to check for an association in Google is to search and see what is highlighted. I chose to search for "Barnes and Noble" who reside on barnesandnoble.com and whose brand is Barnes & Noble. The answer is that no, they are not associated, but that doesn't mean that your site won't show. Obviously Barnes & Noble has established themselves as a brand and will show if you search with and or &.
-
You can use both interchangeably. Search engines can parse a domain name like appleandoranges.com into apple and oranges fairly quickly with a few other signals. That's just an example though, when using whatever it is that you're trying to rank you'll need to take into consideration the strengths of the results that are currently in place: backlink profile, social presence, on-going work, etc. Cheers!
-
Dear Ryan
Appreciate your quick response and your straight forward answer!
So I should focus on optimising Apple & Oranges so when people type 'Apple and oranges' on google my website appleandoranges.com is more likely to come up?
Thanks once again
-
Hi Uzair. Per Google, most punctuation is ignored (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433) the & sign included. That said, a lot of times you'll see the & symbol in title tags due to it being shorter than 'and' and thus allowing more characters. In most cases the differences between using 'and' vs '&' are so miniscule you won't have to spend any time optimizing for them as separate entities. Cheers!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
U.S. Vs. Canada search volume
How does Moz differentiate Canadian data vs. U.S. data? I'm particularly interested in search volume. Why is there such a big difference in volume (much less in Canada)? Is this due to population differences or are there other factors? For example, see the monthly volume for the keyword "Business resilience": U.S. = 360
Keyword Research | Aug 14, 2024, 6:02 AM | BDOCanada
Canada = 6 This seems like a huge difference!0 -
Does &pws=0 still work?
Hi All I have have been kind of out of the seo scene for a while, does &pws=0 still work? I only ask as the search console says our brand name has droped to an average postion 3 ( instead of 1), but every time I check I we are 1st ( and I can see anything behind it that could possiabley get in front of it. Thanks Edit: Actually I also tried testing incognito, via a proxy and &pws=0, we are always 1st
Keyword Research | Jan 31, 2020, 2:46 PM | PaddyDisplays0 -
Paid vs Organic Keyword Optimisation
Hi Im wondering whether I should optimise my site with Organic search terms that drive traffic to the site or the paid terms i use in Google search ads?
Keyword Research | Apr 24, 2018, 6:35 PM | aplnzmarch180 -
Can I use my keyword in brackets '( )'
I need to sort my product keywords in the countries: (UK) (USA) (Global) etc. What does putting my keyword into brackets do - does it negatively affect my SEO?
Keyword Research | Mar 22, 2018, 10:36 PM | crocman0 -
How to get search volume in Google's keyword planner
I want to know the search volume for ~1000 keywords that I discovered via ubersuggest. Yesterday I could have done this in 5 minutes, but I can't seem to get it to work in the new Google tool and would love some advice. When I either upload or copy and paste my list into the tool I can get it to give me search ideas with volume, but it has all the keywords I am uploading as 0 search volume (when I know that is not true and some of them have thousands of searches). I've tried "entering keywords to see how they perform" and also "searching for keyword ideas" (the second just because the first didn't try after my 10 tries) Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?
Keyword Research | Sep 1, 2013, 9:30 AM | theLotter
Or is this a bug other people have been experiencing?0 -
Best practice for targeting 'unnatural' location based keyword phrases
When optimising for a local based service, lets say a painter in texas, you will have various keyword phrases which are relevant e.g Texas painter Painter in Texas Painter Texas I have found that often the phrase which has the most searches is: [Service] [Location] = ('Painter Texas' in this example) But unlike the other phrases this is very hard to work into a natural sounding sentence or heading. Is the best practice to try and target the unnatural sounding phrase anyway due to the higher search volume, or target the next one down to stay natural sounding in your copy? thanks d
Keyword Research | Sep 25, 2012, 9:35 AM | dnaynay1 -
Search Volume vs. CTR
Is it better to optimize based on search volume or click through rate? For example: If a keyword has a CTR of 19% and only 3,000 monthly searches, while another keyword that is relevant to that page has a CTR of 0.7% and 20,000 monthly searches, which keyword should that page be optimized for for better natural results and the bottom line?
Keyword Research | Sep 28, 2011, 3:32 PM | Motivators0 -
Broad Vs. Exact Match
My question seems basic in nature but some recent keyword research has caused me to re-think broad vs. exact match. I was taught to focus on exact match for the short term and broad match for the long term prospects of a keyword. Today I was researching a niche of keyword phrases where the local search volume (broad) was, for example 33,000. The local search volume (exact) was only 500. What I know about broad vs. exact doesn't help me to determine if this keyword is worth going after. The keyword difficulty score by the way was 35% Yes, I do know that I will probably go after this keyword anyway but to refine my question, how do I get an idea of how "big" this keyword is? Is it more on the broad or more on the exact match of things? How do I determine the various derivatives of the phrase that occur under the broad match?
Keyword Research | Aug 17, 2011, 3:44 PM | leaseman0
