New Article - Extra Characters in Title Tags

[thejenn]

Authored by: Jill Whalen

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/wha.../0815_jw1.html

A Snippet:

Do the search engines see the addition of this character: | in the title tag as words/characters, thus reducing the amount of words you should put in the title tag? I am using the character to separate the various services we offer so that they are clear to the people searching, as they are very different.

[allen074]

While I agree with Jill about "|" not being regarded as negative, I do think that it is generally a clear indicator of a "difference".

I like to use "-" when constructing a title that is creating a path and use "|" when constructing a title of multiple somewhat unrelated items.

let me try to illustrate:

Title 1:
Blue Car Repair | Blue Truck Repar

Title 2:
Blue Car Repair - Auto Repair Archive - BMW
(I know these titles are not SEO friendly but they illustrate my point)

---- Allen

[jweaver92006]

I had wondered about this myself and tried a few things. You can infact have what ever you want in your title. I agree with Jill that the Search Engines will simply truncate the text at a certain point. I have found that when optimizing it is better to be short and to the point. For example if you have a shopping site, don't list ALL of your services in the title for your homepage, just optimize the title for that page. such as <example.shopping.com - Free Shirts> or whatever, this will help you bump up above others in the s. engines. Obviously there is more to it than that, but if you want, Google 'john m weaver' and my blog comes up 3rd. It was 12 before i cleaned up my title. It use to say 'the blog of john weaver'. Also remember good links!!
-John

[Big Bill]

If the phrases are different enough to merit being separated by a symbol then surely they merit a separate page of their own optimised around each phrase?

BB