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.
'And' vs '&'
-
Hi everyone
This question has been running through my mind since a few days now. Does Google recognise 'and' / '&' as the same?
Say for example my website url is: appleandorange.com and my keyword for my company is Apple & Orange. If i Focus on Apple & Orange for on-page SEO will google also recognise apple and orange ? Or will I have to on-page SEO seperately for Apple and orange?
So for instance if I keep focusing on Apple & Orange will my website appleandorange.com appear on google?
Thanks in advance
-
A quick way to check for an association in Google is to search and see what is highlighted. I chose to search for "Barnes and Noble" who reside on barnesandnoble.com and whose brand is Barnes & Noble. The answer is that no, they are not associated, but that doesn't mean that your site won't show. Obviously Barnes & Noble has established themselves as a brand and will show if you search with and or &.
-
You can use both interchangeably. Search engines can parse a domain name like appleandoranges.com into apple and oranges fairly quickly with a few other signals. That's just an example though, when using whatever it is that you're trying to rank you'll need to take into consideration the strengths of the results that are currently in place: backlink profile, social presence, on-going work, etc. Cheers!
-
Dear Ryan
Appreciate your quick response and your straight forward answer!
So I should focus on optimising Apple & Oranges so when people type 'Apple and oranges' on google my website appleandoranges.com is more likely to come up?
Thanks once again
-
Hi Uzair. Per Google, most punctuation is ignored (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433) the & sign included. That said, a lot of times you'll see the & symbol in title tags due to it being shorter than 'and' and thus allowing more characters. In most cases the differences between using 'and' vs '&' are so miniscule you won't have to spend any time optimizing for them as separate entities. Cheers!
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
-
U.S. Vs. Canada search volume
How does Moz differentiate Canadian data vs. U.S. data? I'm particularly interested in search volume. Why is there such a big difference in volume (much less in Canada)? Is this due to population differences or are there other factors? For example, see the monthly volume for the keyword "Business resilience": U.S. = 360
Keyword Research | | BDOCanada
Canada = 6 This seems like a huge difference!0 -
Rankings-- Red & Green
Question - you can see the green positive and the red negative. If I optimize a certain keyword, and it turns red - how long should I wait before I optimize it again? The same with green - I had a keyword ranking up 20 points...which of course is good...should just wait for a a few months or use the keyword again next month? Not use how I should address the ups and downs (green & red) of rankings. thank you..
Keyword Research | | WalkieTalkie0 -
My articles aren't ranking for keywords
Hello! I hope someone can help me...I've researched my keywords (long and short tail) for my articles but they are showing up as no ranking keywords. It looks like I've only got a few of my 15 articles which actually have keywords within - and I'm not sure why! Please can someone advise? https://www.el-well.com/helping-your-parents-declutter-their-home/ Thank you.
Keyword Research | | JessicaSilver1 -
Finding the best of 100's of keywords?
Have an online e-commerce store and need to start on keyword research. There is a round 1000 products, not very many all things considered but a very big job to do manually. Do you know any tools that could speed it up? or Process/method that could help? Thanks
Keyword Research | | seoman100 -
What travel keywords to choose? 'flight' or 'airplane ticket'?
I did some keyword research in order to do some onsite optimization on a travel industry-related website. I found 2 kinds of relevant keywords: 'flight'-related keywords (e.g.: flight chicago dallas) 'airplane ticket'-related keywords (e.g.: airplane ticket chicago dallas) Competition is the same on both but the first ones have more volume. So I'm really tempted to go with the 'flight'-related keywords. However the 'airplane ticket'-related keywords also have an interested volume so how should I do my onsite optimization. So each one of this solution do you think is the best: creating one page targeting the 'flight' and 'airplane tickets'-related keywords knowing isn't a good practice targeting two different keywords ? creating two different pages (one targeting 'flight' and the other one targeting 'airplane tickets') but it isn't very relevant for visitors since both pages are proposing the same offer? also it might have some duplicate content issue. creating one page targeting 'flight' and forget about 'airplane tickets' and missing some opportunities ? creating one page targeting 'flight' and adding some 'airplane tickets' keywords in content and hoping to get some 'airplane tickets' keywords traffic ? Thank you in advance for your feedback and sharing your experience in the same kind of issue.
Keyword Research | | patricksiki0 -
Google trends quota's limit?
Hi Mozers, I've a problem with Google trends tool : after 5 searches, I reach the "quota limit". Have you the same issue? Do you use other tools "similar" to Google trends? SEMrush,...? Thank you for answers Regards, Jonathan
Keyword Research | | JonathanLeplang0 -
Branded vs Generic keywords - is Google treating their rank equaly!?
Several times I have noticed that website receiving sort of a rankings drop penalty for certain wrongly built on-page strategies that involves keyword stuffing, wrong keyword density(too much) etc. The question is - how you guys think - is branded keywords receiving the same treatment from Google then generic ones? And here is why - for one popular brand I see that they ranking for their brand keyword very high(1th) but keyword density is awful - more then 10%. So, my guess is - if this keyword density you would apply for generic keyword you will end up nowhere to be found for it! Is that could be truth? Any experiments info about that? thanks and regards, Jungles
Keyword Research | | Jungles0 -
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