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Special characters in keywords

by wilken
5 replies
Hi guys,

I am wondering is there any difference for Google if a keyword is written for example in the following ways:
A B
(A) B
A. B

Does anybody know how the additional characters are treated? Are they ignored or they are taken in consideration and "devaluate" the keyword?
#characters #keywords #special
  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Google ignores the special characters, which can sometimes be a pain in the ass.
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    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author wilken
    So this means that if word A is at the end of one sentence and word B is at the beginning of the next sentence it will be treated by Google exactly if it is "A B" without any special characters involved? I thought their algorithm is smarter...
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  • Profile picture of the author Ray Wilson
    No, Google doesn't like special characters. Their algorithm reads just like humans.

    I mean, think about it, if you could add a few extra characters in the middle and get good rankings, everyone would be going for the high traffic keywords.

    I have a blog with dashes between every keyword, and I had problems trying to get ranked the domain name for quite some time on page one. With exact long tail keywords you won't have such big problems.

    The shorter the "xy" that you add to the end of your website domain name, the better in Google's eyes.

    -Ray
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    • Profile picture of the author SamuelUherek
      Originally Posted by Ray Wilson View Post

      No, Google doesn't like special characters. Their algorithm reads just like humans.

      I mean, think about it, if you could add a few extra characters in the middle and get good rankings, everyone would be going for the high traffic keywords.

      I have a blog with dashes between every keyword, and I had problems trying to get ranked the domain name for quite some time on page one. With exact long tail keywords you won't have such big problems.

      The shorter the "xy" that you add to the end of your website domain name, the better in Google's eyes.

      -Ray
      I don't think exact match domains really matter. It's more about the quality and relevancy.

      Wilken, I think your questions was already answered. But I would add that always register domain names for your visitors. I mean, so that it's not hard to remember.
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  • Profile picture of the author wilken
    Guys I'm not talking about domain names. I am talking about text.

    For example, if we take the above line, my idea is wouldn't Google's algorithm consider a little bit different the keyword "names. I am" and "names I am". I know these keywords don't make much sense but it's just an example based on the first line of this post. Wouldn't the algorithm decide that the first one is not the same keyword as the second because it's actually composed of parts of two separate sentences?
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