What punctuation can you use in meta tags? Are there any Google does not like?

[Trevorneo]

So I know you can use dashes and | in meta tags, but can anyone tell me what other punctuation you can use? Also, it'd be great to know what punctuation you can't use. Thanks!

[UmarKhan]

Hey Sarah,

It's always recommended to use words that makes sense to people and search engines. For punctuations in particular, Google usually ignore them with the exception of some.

The punctuations that you can use are: hyphen, underscores, pipes & colon.

The punctuations that should be avoided are: ' + . , | ! " $ %  / ( ) = ? ^ * ;   > ] [ @' For more details, refer to this article:
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/watch-your-punctuation-online.html

Hope this helps!

Umar

[ClaytonJ]

I assume you are looking for something different. Though on basics as a general rule use the pipe instead of the hyphen. It tends to have a higher CTR and uses less pixels. A win/win.

On out of the box - it is limited emojis were able to be used in part for a while, but google eliminates them or they get read improperly on different browsers. So stay clear.

The best one out of the box is the tick.  See actual meta below.

We connect for FREE Babysitters & Parents. ✓ Green ID available ✓ Free for Babysitters ✓ Free for Parents ✓ Advanced Search Options ✓ Find babysitters.

But customers generally prefer a well written meta making a clear call to action, and make a distinct statement that matches searchers intent.

Hope that assists.

[ronell-smith]

One of biggest mistakes I used to make - and I had no idea I was making it at the time - was in trying to be too cute with my H1s, H2s and meta tags/meta descriptions. How? I focused more on using fancy punctuation (e.g., dashes, pipes and colons, especially) than I did on the message I hoped to get across to readers.

This was in 2010. Eventually, I discerned the trouble I was creating for myself, and not simply in the eyes of Google.

Instead of thinking about what punctuation Google "recognizes," think of how you can deliver your information in the simplest, easiest-to-digest manner possible. When we attempt to get too cute with our punctuation, we must rely too heavily on someone/something else (e.g., search engines) to deliver our message in the way we hope to convey it; most important, though, it takes the emphasis off of the user, which is always, ALWAYS more interested in the best, most apropos result, not the result that highlights our prowess as A-List grammarians and punctuation scholars.

My advice: Write simply to convey your message thoroughly. More often than not that means few words and even fewer punctuation characters.

RS