23 replies to this topic

[Binti]

Jill,
I did see my results move up, as there are no other explanation as we did not update content for those pages. Nor did we make any big changes to the site than removing those characters.

[Jill]

I did see my results move up, as there are no other explanation as we did not update content for those pages. Nor did we make any big changes to the site than removing those characters.

So? Run a ranking report for 100 phrases of your site. Then run it again the next day (without making any changes).

The rankings for many keyword phrases will be different. It has nothing to do with anything you did on your site.

[Scottie]

Remember, it's not always about something you caused.

If you really want to know, put the characters back on and see if the rankings go back to where they were before.

[plantboy]

This touches on something that I think gets overlooked - the style of your title tags. I find that, in a field of otherwise identical content, my eye gets drawn to title tags with subtle decorations like this:

Widget Central : Your Widget Source | widgets, thingies, doohickey, thingy

Just a thought. The star thing seems like a cheap trick, and like a lot of unhealthy SEO, will work in the short term but not the long term.

[FP Guy]

I just tried it out and the star showed up for Firefox 1.5 and
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
(doesn't IE ever do anything simple?) as a star.

And I use Windows XP Professional.

What browsers and operating systems did you use to see the square and question mark?

Michael

[JeremyH]

Thanks everyone who has replied.

I'll definitely not be using the star, or any other characters, in my titles tags, if nothing else but for the sole reason that it will look wrong and unprofessional in many browser systems.

I thought it would be a good idea in that it would bring more eyeballs to my link, but if it shows some funky characters, it would seem that it would turn off some of the people I'm trying to attract.

Thanks again everyone for your valuable input.

[harry_wales]

So? Run a ranking report for 100 phrases of your site.

This suggest some kind of automated reporting...?

I was under the impression that ALL software that ran automated search engine queries did more harm than good?
(i.e. could get you penalised or even banned).

If I am wrong, then anyone who knows of quality software for producing ranking reports for clients, that is S.E. friendly, then PLEASE point me towards it, as something like this could save me DAYS of work each month...

[Randy]

Just make sure whatever software you choose utilizes the API that each of the search engines offer these days. This single requirement will keep you safe.

[Jill]

I was under the impression that ALL software that ran automated search engine queries did more harm than good?
(i.e. could get you penalised or even banned).

Nope, the new (good) ones all use Google's API which is fine. WebPosition Gold, for instance uses the API (or at least gives you the option to put it in). We have a whole thread pinned at the top of the seo resources and advice section, so I don't want another thread here for ranking software.

I wasn't suggesting that ranking reports are a good thing, only suggesting that if you look do run them, you'll see that your rankings will NEVER be the same. Which is why they are actually pretty useless!