At the Webmaster World, an incredibly informative post about Affect 'Punctuations' in Google results has been posted. Here is the post in all its entirety for all our readers to read and learn from:
"Various punctuation characters have a noticeable impact on search results - mostly from a searcher perspective. As a webmaster, you may find that your users include punctuation in some keywords, and so it can be of use to know what the effect on the results they see is. And besides, knowing how to search Google is one step towards understanding how Google works. This is a spot check of the current handling of punctuation by Google.
Indexed punctuation
Key_word
Underscores are treated as a letter of the alphabet, which is why you can [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=_]search for an underscore directly[/url]. Use underscores in content if your visitors include an underscore when searching (e.g. if you had a programming site).
Key&word
Ampersands or 'and symbols' have fairly unique handling. They're both [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=%26]indexed[/url] and also treated as the equivalent of word "and". If there are no spaces separating the symbol and the adjacent letters, the search results are an approximate equivalent of combining results for ["key and word"] and ["key & word"] (note the phrase matching). Use ampersands in copy as is natural for your target audience.
Explicit search operators
Many punctuation characters are explicit search operators, with a documented effect on results. Search operators are not indexed (or at least, they can't be searched for) and so are usually treated as word separators when found within website copy:
Key¦word
An (unbroken) pipe character is the equivalent of boolean OR: a search for [key OR word]. It can be a handy shortcut when conducting complex queries.
Key"word
A double quote triggers an exact or phrase search for the proceeding words (whether you include a closing double quote or not). So in this instance, it's the equivalent of a search for [key word] since a single word can't be a phrase. ["key word] is the same as searching for ["key word"].
Key*word
An asterisk is a wildcard search for zero or more words: [key … word]. Putting numbers on both sides will trigger the calculator. Occasionally, Google delivers (strange!) results if you search for an asterisk directly.
Key~word
A tilde triggers Google's related word operator - in this instance, a search for both 'key' and 'word', as well as other words related to 'word' - like 'Microsoft', 'dictionary' and others.
Search operator oddities
Key-word
A hyphen (as is probably consistent with language use) returns a mix of results for the words both used separately, and joined together - somewhere between [key word] and [keyword]. It's the preferred word separator within website URLs, since other punctuation characters that are treated as a word-separator have specific functions within a URL.
Others
A few punctuation characters have a strange impact on results - returning far fewer results than for either separated or concatenated words. They are neither known search operators, or indexed characters. These are . / \ @ = :
As far as I'm, aware, all other punctuation characters are treated as simply a space or word separator.
So, do I have too much time on my hands? Probably. But why not confuse whoever looks at Google's search logs by
trying a few punctuation searches yourself? ;)
Do you know any punctuation with an effect on results not discussed here, or more about the effect on results of the punctuation above?"
There are several responses at the Webmaster World, in regards to the above post. Let's see what others have to say about it:
"Wow - that's a nice summary, Andy. Thanks.
You mentioned the asterisk as a wild card search. There's a seldom discussed approach for finding some long tail phrases.
Suppose [brandname product] is the search you'd really like to target, but the competition for that top phrase is a bit intense. What three word phrases might you be able to rank for? Try the search [brandname product *] and notice the other words that show up in bold text on the SERP.
The * wildcard search is also helpful for monitoring online reputation - [firstname lastname *] or [companyname *] can show you a lot sometimes."
"Wildcards combined with phrase matching are great for isolating a particular piece of information too. Want to know when Google started? Search for ["google was launched in *"] - scan the results page and you'll get the answer in bold. I sometimes think that technique is the basis of most of the supposed 'semantic' and question/answer search engines out there ;)
I figured out the effect of the other punctuation too: key/word (and the others) returns results for ["key word"]. I originally thought they might be viewed as 'typo punctuation' i.e. the result of a mistype, but this is not the case."
"While the above represents the 'standard' handling of punctuation in Google, there are always exceptions.
For certain words that commonly contain punctuation, Google both indexes, and returns results for keywords containing punctuation. So, we get very different results when searching for [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=C]C[/url], [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=C#]C#[/url], and [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=C++]C++[/url].
This also means that you can search for musical chords, and if you're doing well on your exams, an [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=a%2B]A+[/url]. In fact, trailing plus symbols always seem to return results.
In some instances, punctuation that would be useful for searches are not returned, for instances when searching for currency symbols, and in the case of dollar signs, programming variables.
I'm not clear on what the criteria are for punctuation to be considered a valid part of a search query."
"Thanks for the comprehensive list!
"Various punctuation characters have a noticeable impact on search results - mostly from a searcher perspective. As a webmaster, you may find that your users include punctuation in some keywords, and so it can be of use to know what the effect on the results they see is. And besides, knowing how to search Google is one step towards understanding how Google works. This is a spot check of the current handling of punctuation by Google.
Indexed punctuation
Key_word
Underscores are treated as a letter of the alphabet, which is why you can [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=_]search for an underscore directly[/url]. Use underscores in content if your visitors include an underscore when searching (e.g. if you had a programming site).
Key&word
Ampersands or 'and symbols' have fairly unique handling. They're both [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=%26]indexed[/url] and also treated as the equivalent of word "and". If there are no spaces separating the symbol and the adjacent letters, the search results are an approximate equivalent of combining results for ["key and word"] and ["key & word"] (note the phrase matching). Use ampersands in copy as is natural for your target audience.
Explicit search operators
Many punctuation characters are explicit search operators, with a documented effect on results. Search operators are not indexed (or at least, they can't be searched for) and so are usually treated as word separators when found within website copy:
Key¦word
An (unbroken) pipe character is the equivalent of boolean OR: a search for [key OR word]. It can be a handy shortcut when conducting complex queries.
Key"word
A double quote triggers an exact or phrase search for the proceeding words (whether you include a closing double quote or not). So in this instance, it's the equivalent of a search for [key word] since a single word can't be a phrase. ["key word] is the same as searching for ["key word"].
Key*word
An asterisk is a wildcard search for zero or more words: [key … word]. Putting numbers on both sides will trigger the calculator. Occasionally, Google delivers (strange!) results if you search for an asterisk directly.
Key~word
A tilde triggers Google's related word operator - in this instance, a search for both 'key' and 'word', as well as other words related to 'word' - like 'Microsoft', 'dictionary' and others.
Search operator oddities
Key-word
A hyphen (as is probably consistent with language use) returns a mix of results for the words both used separately, and joined together - somewhere between [key word] and [keyword]. It's the preferred word separator within website URLs, since other punctuation characters that are treated as a word-separator have specific functions within a URL.
Others
A few punctuation characters have a strange impact on results - returning far fewer results than for either separated or concatenated words. They are neither known search operators, or indexed characters. These are . / \ @ = :
As far as I'm, aware, all other punctuation characters are treated as simply a space or word separator.
So, do I have too much time on my hands? Probably. But why not confuse whoever looks at Google's search logs by
trying a few punctuation searches yourself? ;)
Do you know any punctuation with an effect on results not discussed here, or more about the effect on results of the punctuation above?"
There are several responses at the Webmaster World, in regards to the above post. Let's see what others have to say about it:
"Wow - that's a nice summary, Andy. Thanks.
You mentioned the asterisk as a wild card search. There's a seldom discussed approach for finding some long tail phrases.
Suppose [brandname product] is the search you'd really like to target, but the competition for that top phrase is a bit intense. What three word phrases might you be able to rank for? Try the search [brandname product *] and notice the other words that show up in bold text on the SERP.
The * wildcard search is also helpful for monitoring online reputation - [firstname lastname *] or [companyname *] can show you a lot sometimes."
"Wildcards combined with phrase matching are great for isolating a particular piece of information too. Want to know when Google started? Search for ["google was launched in *"] - scan the results page and you'll get the answer in bold. I sometimes think that technique is the basis of most of the supposed 'semantic' and question/answer search engines out there ;)
I figured out the effect of the other punctuation too: key/word (and the others) returns results for ["key word"]. I originally thought they might be viewed as 'typo punctuation' i.e. the result of a mistype, but this is not the case."
"While the above represents the 'standard' handling of punctuation in Google, there are always exceptions.
For certain words that commonly contain punctuation, Google both indexes, and returns results for keywords containing punctuation. So, we get very different results when searching for [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=C]C[/url], [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=C#]C#[/url], and [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=C++]C++[/url].
This also means that you can search for musical chords, and if you're doing well on your exams, an [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=a%2B]A+[/url]. In fact, trailing plus symbols always seem to return results.
In some instances, punctuation that would be useful for searches are not returned, for instances when searching for currency symbols, and in the case of dollar signs, programming variables.
I'm not clear on what the criteria are for punctuation to be considered a valid part of a search query."
"Thanks for the comprehensive list!
