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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

      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

        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

          Interesting information. Thank you.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • BrightHealth
            BrightHealth last edited by

            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 Reply Quote 2
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