A lively discussion on Twitter about whether or not a pipe “|” or a dash “-” in the title tag made a difference led to interesting observations. Several members of the search marketing community shared three distinct viewpoints illustrating why there is a difference.
Bill Hartzer (@bhartzer) started the discussion by asking what he should use.
Bill has been a leader in the search marketing community for decades and is respected by many. As the discussion developed, it quickly became apparent that Bill had his own answer already.
I suspect he may have been curious to see what others had to say:
Should I use a | or a – in the title tag?
— Bill Hartzer (@bhartzer) August 19, 2020
Pixel Space in Title Tags
Ethan Lazuk (@EthanLazuk) offered the observation that the pipe saves space.
Title elements are measured in pixels as well as in characters.
- Characters are letters, numbers and symbols.
- A pixel is a the smallest image element in a display, like a dot.
That means that if you replace dashes with pipes, you can actually fit more characters into a title tag.
That in turn increases the amount of words displayed in the website title that is displayed in Google’s search results.
Ethan’s observation was a clever contribution to the discussion.
My thought: | saves space and is firmer while – is subtler and more stylized. (*No science used in this opinion.) I use my judgment site by site. Some feel like hyphen brands; others pipes. Might even get crazy and do a combo!
— Ethan Lazuk 🌴 (@EthanLazuk) August 19, 2020
Bill Hartzer agreed, saying that pixels mattered.
| saves Pixels. Pixels matter.
— Bill Hartzer (@bhartzer) August 19, 2020
Bill tipped his hand and showed that he already had his mind up about using pipes in the title element.
Others agreed with Ethan and Bill that optimizing pixel space was useful.
I only use | , it helps when I’m trying to save pixel space.
— Andrew Coco SEO (@AyyyCoco) August 19, 2020
In addition to saving pixels, the | is also more appealing visual, IMO.
— newmediaMike (Mike Allan) (@SEOVideoCoach) August 20, 2020
I use | only 🙂
— D@RWIN (@DasfNYC) August 19, 2020
Pipe and Dashes Can Communicate Meaning
An interesting observation was made by Keith M. (@SumoFondue).
Keith suggested that the pipe was useful to separating entities (person, places or things).
He observed that the dash can serve to separate the attribute of something being described.
Depends on what you are delimiting IMO.
Distinct entities use |
Attributes use –Shop ABC Products | Acme Inc
vs
DEF Men’s T-Shirt – Blue— Keith M. (@SumoFondue) August 20, 2020
In his example, the entity (Acme Inc) is separated from the call to action, “Shop ABC Products” by the pipe.
“Shop ABC Products | Acme Inc”
The dash serves to separate the entity (Men’s T-Shirt) from the description of it, which is the word, blue.
Blue is an attribute of the t-shirt. Separating the two words and phrases with a dash serves to communicate this relationship.
“DEF Men’s T-Shirt – Blue”
There is no suggestion that the dash would help Google understand that “blue” describes the entity. But it may help communicate the relationship of the phrase t-shirt to the word, blue.
Google probably understands the relationship already because of the natural language processing (NLP) algorithms in use.
But websites are designed for humans. So the web page elements, even the title tag, should be created with how humans may respond to them.
The pipe may be visually useful for separating the call to action (Shop ABC Products) from the entity (Acme Inc).
Depends on what you are delimiting IMO.
Distinct entities use |
Attributes use –Shop ABC Products | Acme Inc
vs
DEF Men’s T-Shirt – Blue— Keith M. (@SumoFondue) August 20, 2020
Do What Looks Best
There was a third group of people who suggested doing whatever looks best. That’s a third way to think about the role of the pipe and the dash in communicating information to a potential site visitor.
Search marketing expert Stephanie Woods (@steph_woods) said:
I like the dash. I also prefer to not use the brand name on every single page since it's not always necessary (except the homepage, contact page, and about us page). So sometimes it's none of the above. Whatever reads the best IMO.
— Stephanie Woods (@steph_woods) August 19, 2020
Dan Leibson (@DanLeibson) agreed that aesthetics was an important consideration:
I think | is more aesthetically pleasing
— Dan Leibson (@DanLeibson) August 19, 2020
Others agreed with Stephanie:
In addition to saving pixels, the | is also more appealing visual, IMO.
— newmediaMike (Mike Allan) (@SEOVideoCoach) August 20, 2020
User Centered SEO Decisions
Nobody suggested it made a difference in ranking whether one uses a pipe or a dash. That was never a consideration.
The discussion highlighted that there are user centered considerations related to how users see and understand even the smallest elements on a web page.
I know a person who squeezes a small percentage of extra conversions by manipulating details, big and small, to appeal to the site visitor.
For example, her landing pages detect if a site visitor is using an iPhone or an Android device.
For the iPhone visitors she displays an “iPhone friendly” icon. The Android users get the “Android Friendly” icon.
A/B tests showed that conversions improved by a small but measurable amount for their campaigns.
The smallest detail in a title tag can have a positive influence, even if it’s an aesthetic factor.
Efficiently communicating information, even from the title tag, while also being appealing, can be useful.
Follow the Twitter discussion here:
