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.
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?
-
Nicholas is correct. Brackets, (r) symbols (TM) and full stops, Pipes (like these) | and commas don't affect SEO. I have extensively tested my titles in the SERPS for CTR and found that using Pipes as delimiters is higher converting than full stops or commas. But it all depends on what looks nice. For example, we have a great number one positions with the following titles: Remarkable Braces Liverpool | From £46.50pcm | Free Whitening It's the stars that draw attention to the free whitening with your braces Veneers Cost in 2018 | Veneers Price Comparison by Cosmetic Dentists This used to be 2017 and I recently updated it to 2018, Google loves dates because users want up to date information. Don't just update the date though without making actual additions and changes to the page though. This is possibly going to negatively affect things. Smileworks Liverpool | Affordable Private Dentist Liverpool Simple pipe looks clean and emphasises our affordability. 6 Month Smiles Liverpool | Unbiased Reviews & Price Comparison Comparisons of price is a great title to use and the & symbol is fine here so it doesn't go over the word limit for a title tag Fastbraces Liverpool | Orthodontist Q&A, safety, prices and reviews Q&A is fine here too. If you google a term you can see whether google considers it to mean the same thing by it beingf shown in bold in the meta descriptions in other results. So for example 6 month smiles is the same in the eyes of google as six-month-smiles and compound hyphens, brackets and all that good stuff will only serve to emphasise and increase CTR which is huge. Get testing. It takes a couple of days for a title tag to change but you can get meaningful data from search console for your click through rates (CTR) Be creative! There is a John Mueller Q&A on the topic and that's where I learned that google doesn't care or it takes these things into account if you use them naturally and in a way that is nice to look at in the SERP or that stands out. Hope this helps
Good luck testing.
-
I don't imagine it will negatively affect SEO, and in fact, brackets and parentheses have been shown to increase CTR when in a Meta Title Tag. If you implement this I would only do it a few pages to test it, and keep track of the rankings and analytics for those pages specifically. If rankings and Analytics are the same or better, you should be good to implement it on Product Pages.
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
-
Ranking for keywords in multiple zip codes
Hello, We are trying to rank for keywords locally. We are on the edge of four zip codes in our area and are competing with businesses in those zip codes. Should we track each keyword separately for each zip code, or just one zip code we're in?
Keyword Research | | ifixcars0 -
How many keywords do you recommend tracking?
I am working through thousands of organic keywords and would like to create a list of core keywords. I want the list to be small enough that we can really go after these keywords and track progress. I work for a B2B software company. I am thinking between 20-30 but I would love to hear any tips, opinions and recommendations! Thank you!
Keyword Research | | NikCall0 -
How granular should I get with Keyword research?
I'm doing KW research for a new business. My understanding from KW research guides: Use tools to create a list of thousands of keywords Analyze difficulty and search volume Reduce your list and do on page optimization for your select KWs My dilemma with this approach is that it seems "keyword based" rather than "intent" or "category" based. e.g. Let's say I have a grocery store. Ignoring SEO, I know that these are my main categories: Produce Meat Dairy Canned Goods Baked Goods In other words, the above categories are the general "intents" and "categories" that I'd really want to rank for. Keyword tool shows that they have high volume and high difficulty. Let's say that after doing keyword research, I discover "Low Fat Chicken Breasts" and "Turkey Sausage" and "Cheap Meat Wholesale" have decent search volume and low competition. I don't quite understand how I'm supposed to utilize these fringe keywords in my on page SEO plan because it doesn't make sense as a human to categorize my site that way. Not sure if this is clear. Basically I'm trying to figure out if I should really be getting this granular on keywords to help guide my store categories or if I should just be picking broader terms.
Keyword Research | | clarasboutiqueusa0 -
Setting Up a Keyword Matrix
Greetings MOZ community!! My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms. The following terms are among the most valuable: New York City office space,
Keyword Research | | Kingalan1
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office space Such variants as: Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really well How would I match different terms to different URLs? For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page) Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices? For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links. Is this approach sensible? In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords? Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants? As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant? Thanks, Alan0 -
Keyword ranking by word order
If we have a keyword with 2 words like "SSL Audit". Will it rank in the same position the other way "Audit SSL" ?
Keyword Research | | Cistrust.com0 -
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 | | dnaynay1 -
Keyword Traffic Estimator Tools
Hello, I'm relatively new to SEO and looking to find a good tool for estimating the search traffic volume of different keywords in order to focus efforts on higher yielding terms. Right now I'm using Google's traffic estimator but it doesn't seem to have much data for long-tail keywords. Is anything else out there better or more accurate? Thank you!
Keyword Research | | rawberg0