Which one of them works better?
-
Hello everybody,
As I need to improve the title tags of the site I manage, I was wondering which one between the hyphen (-) and the the vertical bar (|) when writing title tags?
-
There isn't any issue using both within a single website. I use both because I use them to signify different things, as mentioned above. I've even used both in the same title.
-
Thanks for your answer, this really helps. And also answer my question about using both of them within the same website for different pages.
-
I don't believe there's any difference from a search engine standpoint between hyphens ( - ) in vertical bars ( | ). It's pretty much your own preference. You may also want to consider how visitors to your site will respond seeing pipes versus hyphens, and which produces better click-through rates.
Personally, I like to use pipes to distinguish between two concepts and hyphens to connect two concepts. For example, if I have a company that produces auto parts, I might use a hyphen in their title tag, e.g. "auto parts-the company name" if I'm trying to connect these two. On the other hand, if I'm trying to distinguish two ideas like auto parts and auto repair, I might use the pipe in between them because I'm trying to distinguish the two ideas, but that's just a personal preference.
Here is a short video from Matt Cutts a few years ago where he says that hyphens and pipes don't make a difference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2_7PTio3Qc
-
I did check their titles but some of them have hyphens and some others have v-bars anyway, I will have to make a decision about that.
-
No problem. Although, I've just noticed that since the re-brand Moz actually uses hyphens now instead of v-bars. Perhaps you can read something into that? But probably not.
For general usability and brand consistency it is best to implement the same title system across all pages.
-
thanks for your answer.
If both work well then I will not change it.
Also do they have to be the same across the whole site or can be both used depending on the page?
-
It seems to me that both can be effective.
For example, Moz and econsultancy make good use of the vertical bar: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Aeconsultancy.com&oq=site%3Aeconsultancy.com&aqs=chrome.0.57j58.6061j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Whereas BBC opt for the hyphens: http://tinyurl.com/lbp5kxe
Both work but from a personal perspective, I think the vertical bars split up the content in a nicer way.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Moving from Bigcommerce to Woocommerce on WP. Should we redirect size pages into one page?
We are moving from Bigcommerce to Woocommerce on WP. On Bigcommerce, due to some bizarre reasoning the previous developer had 3 separate URLS for the same product in different sizes - S, M and L. Now we plan to have one product page where the sizes can be selected and 301 redirect the 3 urls to the new one. Is this advisable? Or should we just have 3 separate pages. OR should we have one of the sizes pages as the new page and then redirect the other 2 to this one? I ask this because the site has a LOT of ranking power and we do not want to jeopardise that.
On-Page Optimization | | MashBonigala0 -
So I know my website needs work, how do I go about fixing it now and improve my ranks?
I thought at first it was going to be as simple as adding a few keywords here or there. But apparently not. I see where I messed up in the errors, warnings, and notices. How do I go about fixing them?
On-Page Optimization | | taychatha0 -
301 Redirects From a URL without Keyphrases to one With Keyphrases
I have a client that sells services. Each service offered currently has a URL structure like this: www.companyname.com/product/asp$view-id-page3022-item-24 These pages are pretty old, and I would love to have a more user-friendly URL like this: www.companyname.com/product/purple-swatch-watch If I rename the URL and do a 301 redirect, what impact will that have on search? Ideally, this page will be optimized for "purple swatch watch", but the current URL structure is so... well, you know. My apologies if this has been answered before. I tried looking through archived of 301 issues, but lost hope after my first 10 or so attempts at answered didn't help this specific issue.
On-Page Optimization | | ericav0 -
Keyword in url, which way better?
Hello, is there a difference between urls for targeting keyword "brazil tourist visa" fastbrazilvisas.com/tourist or fastbrazilvisas.com/brazil-tourist-visa ? ran the report In-Page Optimization it tells "no keyword usage in url". is there an idea behind that? thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Kotkov0 -
Better to update or add articles?
Hi, We have an online gift store and we write new blogs every year. Question is, if we already had a blog that's called 'Top Valentine Gifts' from last year,should we update the blog content with the most updated data, or should we add a new blog called 'Top Valentine Gifts 2012' and rename the old one to 'Top Valentine Gifts 2011' (and 301 redirect the old URL)? Which one is more beneficial in terms of SEO?
On-Page Optimization | | Essentia0 -
Re SEO, Is it better to have a mega menu or one split into categories?
Hi From an SEO perspective is it better to have 1 large listed menu - over 100 internal links - or say a much smaller menu split into say 10 categories - so 10 links.
On-Page Optimization | | joeprice
This menu would be appearing on nearly all pages but not the home page In terms of the user experience, in my case, I have a feeling having 1 large menu is possibly preferable as it reduces the number of clicks the user makes to get to the desired information and categorisation can be a bit subjective, but i'd like some advice from an SEO perspective. Thanks0 -
100 links on one page
we're recommended 100 links or less on one page. is the 100 links including header and footer links?
On-Page Optimization | | jallenyang0 -
Why has only one page been crawled?
I went over the list of possible reasons, but I don't think any of them apply to the site in question: sarahhueniken.com. Any other reasons only one page would be crawled?
On-Page Optimization | | scottsemple0