How does Google handle fractions in titles?

[Choice]

Which is better practice, using 1/2" or ½"?

The keyword research suggests people search for "1 2" with the space being the "/".

How does Google handle fractions? Would ½ be the same as 1/2?

[Choice]

That is exactly correct. Searchers are not using symbols in their search, so it's much more practical to optimize for 3/4, 1/2, or half inch (as the keyword research suggests) rather than these fractional symbols because they are impossible (?) for users to generate using a standard keyboard. Especially if products are unusual sizes like 8/11 or 3/16.

[effectdigital]

This is actually very true. Google's keyword planner has seen many updates over the years, but still it can't process some very common symbols and characters. Whilst many of these characters are common in human language, many are not 'commonly typed' and as such I guess there would be little to no point in Google updating KWP. This in and of itself may be useful information though, as it points to the fact that - keywords which include such characters, are probably barely typed

[Dr-Pete]

Unfortunately, some keyword research tools may strip that special character out, so I'd be a little wary of the results. It may not reflect what Google does in all cases.

[Dr-Pete]

While this is interesting (especially to me and others who like to dig into the nuances of search), I'm not sure if it helps you much practically. I don't think a typical searcher is every going to enter "¾" (or, if some do, it's incredibly low volume).

[Dr-Pete]

Can you provide a context? Over the past couple of years, Google has started to treat symbols differently depending on the context. I've seen weird situations with the $ sign, for example.

In some cases, Google will try to actually do the math and pull up calculator functions, for example. However, the handle a search like [3/4" wrench] pretty well and seem to understand the context (and match it to '3/4' in title tags, etc.).

[Choice]

Ok, so I ran a quick test and have an answer for anyone interested.

¾ is not equal to 3/4.

If the user searches for 3/4, Google will not return results with ¾.

However, if the user searches for ¾, Google will return results with ¾.

Hope this helps!

[Choice]

We have many similar i.e. 3/4, 5/8, 11/16, etc.

[effectdigital]

I personally don't think that Google handles this data exceptionally well:

https://d.pr/i/2Y562I.png (Keyword Revealer screenshot)

https://d.pr/i/El2skX.png (Ahrefs screenshot)

https://d.pr/i/Y3bQ3p.png (Google keyword planner screenshot)

... however, I do sometimes see such keywords returned from Google Search Console and / or Google Analytics under GSC's "Search Queries" (search terms) report. So it makes me wonder, if Google really has such trouble, why does it highlight and record such keywords, passing them to me for further analysis?

Maybe it's actually not a big deal, it's just that Google's keyword planner (in terms of full unicode support) is way, WAY out of date (something they should have patched and fixed 5-6 years ago IMO)

Regardless of this though, more people do seem to search by 'half' or '50%', people 'almost' never type "½" as it's so hard to type in a web browser, you almost always have to copy and paste the symbol unless you have some kind of rich-text field entry add-in / extension

Google can process the symbol as search entry text:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%C2%BD

Google often states that actually, using unicode characters (even in URLs, in UTF-8) is ok in modern times. This is a compromise they have had to make, as many foreign characters are packaged  in various unicode character sets

This is the full list of UTF-8 symbols:

http://www.fileformat.info/info/charset/UTF-8/list.htm

If you Ctrl+F for '½', it is technically in that list. As early as 2008 Google was recorded indexing UTF-8 URLs:

https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/018137.html

Much more recently, the debate has been raised again:

https://searchengineland.com/google-using-non-english-urls-non-english-websites-fine-294758

"For domain names and top-level domains non-Latin characters are represented with Unicode encoding. This can look a little bit weird at first. For example, if you take Mueller, my last name, with the dots on the U, that would be represented slightly differently as a domain name. For browsers and for Google search, both versions of the domain name are equivalent; we treat them as one and the same. The rest of the URL can use unicode utf-8 encoding for non-Latin characters. You can use either the escape version or the unicode version within your website; they’re also equivalent to Google."

Obviously Google is talking about URLs here, but usually Google becomes capable of reading characters in markup (content, Page Titles etc) first and then accepts them for valid URL usage later. I would surmise that it probably is 'ok' to use them, but it probably would not be 'optimal' or 'the best idea'

[effectdigital]

Also: "50%"

[jasongmcmahon]

Hello, out of interest why not just use the word "half"? I have a feeling that most people would use the word, not the fraction especially on a mobile device; where you'd be required to swap between the alphabetical & numerical keyboards.