unfriendly-googlebot-symbols-seo-search-engine-optimization-marketing

Unfriendly Googlebot Symbols

So when using the keyword phrase: “unfriendly Googlebot symbols” there is no issue, but when using a phrase (whether anchor linking for SEO or just ad-copy content) that involves symbols, how does Googlebot’s spider react? Can it read through symbols that come out wrong such as [apostrophes] ‘s or [bullet points] • ? Here’s what each look like to a Googlebot spider:

= ’ = Â

Still researching an answer, if you have any insight to offer, please do below. Here’s a sample that can be applied to either anchor link or ad-copy content examples:

Googlebot and Search Engine Marketing

as opposed to using the phrase:

Googlebot & Search Engine Marketing

What is lost? Is it a matter of search representation (more people spell “and” opposed to “&”), or are there issues with how the Googlebot spiders can crawl the page? Are certain symbols causing the bot to misread content, or even worse, stop crawling at a particular break in symbols or characters within ad-copy content or anchor link text?

I generally like using the spelled out word because it’s actually found in search representation as well, but sometimes layout spacing doesn’t allow for it.

The overwhelming idea I’m left with on this is that Goggle has told us a million times over, and especially as of late, that they will penalize sites hosting content that has bad grammer, and misspellings … on that premise, how could apostrophes that are read by bots as ’ such characters be a penalty, if it is also the proper grammer?

Any thoughts?

Michael
Ensight marketing
Principle SEM Consultant