Using Symbols to Make Page Title Stand Out in SERPs
Getting your page to top 10 results in Google is one thing but getting people to click through is yet another story. It is easier if you are #1 of course – but if you are somewhere in the middle, catching surfers’ eye is quite hard.
One way is to make your title short and concise, as well as do your best to make it contain the search terms (which will be in bold). Surely, it is really hard – you only have about 65 characters at your disposal – it is almost impossible to foresee everything having such a small playground.
Quite naturally, webmasters have been looking for alternative ways to make their listings more eye-catching. Inserting various symbols is one way to experiment with.
Possible symbols include:
- a star (۞ OR ★)
- an asterisk (*)
- ~~ instead of –
Back in 2006 I experimented with one celebrity site adding stars (★) to the title. It did stand out and seemed relevant (as the site was actually about the stars). But Google quickly started dropping my pages out of the index. They were all back once I removed the symbol.
Some forum threads report that Google starts using ODP title in case it founds stars being added to the title.
I have never seen any negative effect with characters like * or ~ though. Neither can I state those characters are real help when it comes to the click-through.
What’s your take?
Ann Smarty
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31 Responses to “Using Symbols to Make Page Title Stand Out in SERPs”
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Interesting idea here. Have you experimented anymore since the celebrity site with the stars?
I guess I will just watch what you do with the page titles on DailySEOTip.com.
Shhhhh Ann. This was my secret a few years ago for ranking page 1 for ringtones. I used the music symbol ? in my title and serp click thrus were awesome.
Shhhhh Ann. This was my secret a few years ago for ranking page 1 for ringtones. I used the music symbol in my title and serp click thrus were awesome.
Good post! I have tried in Meta description which has helped me increase the CTR but now it is of less importance since Meta description aren’t the one displayed in SERP.
A good post. Have you experimented with any other sites. Its always eye catchy to use relevant symbols(as Ken commented using music symbol for music sites) makes people to look at your site and come there.
A good informative post and something I’ve never thought about trying before. This is definately something to think about and see how effective it could be for websites I develop. Thanks for sharing this information.
I’ve tried it. Google strips them out. Worked well for a while.
Ken Savage Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 4:57 am
They haven’t done it to serps that I’ve had for years.
Inserting various symbols is one way to experiment.I’ve never thought about trying before.thanks.
While using symbols seems tempting I am not sure I would want to go ahead with it because if the search engines ever do consider it as a spamming factor they will drop the pages in the website as it previously happened to you.
After putting in all the time and effort in a site, it is really worth loosing all that work to try and get around the search engines to try and stand out in SERP ?
While this is not new, the best way to stand out is to have the best new fresh content on your website and not take any short cuts because it may in the future hurt your website when the search engines update their algorithm.
As far as I can see G’s guidelines say only, “Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive and accurate.” thank you so much.
I think it
I think it’s pretty sure that the big G will not like things like this, but, we have to study each case.
I don’t believe it’ll word in my site!
I would want to go ahead with it because if the search engines ever do consider it as a spamming factor they will drop the pages in the website as it previously happened to you.thanks.
nice post This is definately something to think about and see how effective it could be for websites I develop.thanks
Good tips for using symbols in title. I’ll try this in my blog. Thanks for information.
I have tried in Meta description which has helped me increase the CTR but now it is of less importance nice post thanks.
John S. Britsios Reply:
September 1st, 2009 at 1:14 am
I would suggest using rich snippets: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=21997
Seth Godin mentioned a couple of {days} ago the powerful attraction of a couple of brackets where really there is no need nor call for them.
In other words, do you think we can use for example these ♥ or ♥ instead of the meta robots or robots.txt “noindex” directive, to block Google from indexing a page?
I wonder if you are aware that special chars like those mentioned do not render properly in systems using utf-8 char-set.
They actually display on the browser title bar as empty squares, and result in an unprofessional, image for your website.
Use with caution.
John S. Britsios Reply:
September 1st, 2009 at 12:41 am
I am definetely aware about the UTF-8 issues. But that was not my question.
I wonder if you are aware that special chars [like hearts, card symbols, music chars etc] do not render properly in systems using utf-8 char-set.
They actually display on the browser title bar as empty squares, and result in an unprofessional, image for your website.
Pick carefully use with caution.
John S. Britsios Reply:
September 1st, 2009 at 12:46 am
Again, I do not want to use them at all for visual presentation or so ever. If you read my original post, you will realize that I am talking about the bots reaction when I use such symbols (charsets) in the title tags.
Oops!! but using this symbol will be a spam to google ?? i have no idea to use symbols to highlight the titles or making attractive for spiders.
John S. Britsios (Webnauts) Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:12 am
Then you must be happy that you do not know how to add symbols in the title tags.
@Ron Boyd, I realized after all that you were commenting to Ann’s post and not to my comments. My apologies buddy.
Good point using symbols in page title. I don’t seen this type of title till now.
Friends and more, thank you
Great place to find all these symbols: www.FacebookSymbols.com
Take a look at this:
libri on line
P.S. Libri = Books
Google admits symbols, but this site is 55th in SERP.
Bye,
Ric