One of the things that I admire about the Google algo is it’s ability to “learn” and “adapt” based on incoming data. For example when search volume for a certain keywords reaches a certain volume words that were originally mis-spellings become real words. Today I came across an example of this logic being applied to site links.
For example look at the SERP for the word [tia's] you’ll notice no site links
Now search for [tias] without the apostrophe and site links appear
Your first thought might be it’s just the apostrophe, but that’s not the case [victorias secret] and [victoria's secret] both have site links
Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that people are lazy, and searches without the apostrophe are usually going to have more volume than searches with the apostrophe
While there isn’t enough search volume to get on the graph in the US and Canada you can see a teeny tiny red bar if you squint. Now when we compare [tias] with and without the apostrophe we get a similar graph, but the news graph on the bottom has both data sets.
However when we compare [victorias secret] with [tias] the volume delta is easy to spot, especially if you narrow it down to just the US (most of tias volume was non US)
So my working theory is, unless your name/brand is going to generate significant volume, keep apostrophes and other punctuation (like hyphens) out of your company name and domain name. Especially if you want to ever get site links.
Related posts:
- Google Site Links UI Looks Funny Not sure what’s causing it but I’ve never seen site...
- Site Links are Ephemeral When I see things like this I have to admit...
- Checking for Broken Links and Link Rot and the Importance of Good Site Architecture Recently I’ve been experimenting with a plugin for checking broken...
- How Do You Archive Pages on a High Post Volume Website Today’s post is an answer to a question I took...
- Deep Crawling a Mini Site Part II After correcting some “errors” in my mini-site architecture (see Deep...
Advertisers:
- Text Link Ads - New customers can get $100 in free text links.
- BOTW.org - Get a premier listing in the internet's oldest directory.
- Ezilon.com Regional Directory - Check to see if your website is listed!
- Need an SEO Audit for your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services
- Directory Journal - Get permanent deep links in a search engine friendly directory
- LinkWheel SEO - Get Web 2.0 Backlinks
- TigerTech - Great Web Hosting service at a great price.
- Article-Writing-services.org - Article Writing Services creates quality content for websites and blogs at no cost to site owners.
- Link Building Services - Hire WeBuildLink.com for well-planned advanced link building campaigns. Very affordable. Contact us now for a FREE evaluation.
- Join 500+ top agencies & publishers who rely on The HOTH every day. US based, enterprise-grade support. High quality, contextually relevant links. 100% money back guarantee. Try it now.
- Professional website designs - Get a unique brand image with website designs that sets you apart and convert your visitors into customers. Make a brand, not just a website
See my disclaimer about advertising and affiliate links
