Does a hyphen mark matter from SEO purposes within the text or in the title ?

[StClaire]

Hi, it' a novice question. Suppose that I am going to write about a laptop..Is there a difference from the SEO purpose if I write about it with and without hyphen mark ( 15 inch or 15-inch laptop to give an example)? I am not questioning using hyphen in the domain name. But does it matter if I use either version in the title of the text or the text itself? Or if I take it further does it matter from the same perspective if I use a gap behind 15 ( 15inch or 15 inch ) ? This kind of SEO things is still a kind of blurred for me. thank you Petr

 

[Edwin]

If you put a hyphen between two keywords, Google is likely to treat them as a single "unit", whereas a space is just a separator.

Perhaps an example will make this clearer.

Imagine 2 web pages:
A) Title: 15-inch laptop <- Google sees two keywords: "15 inch" and "laptop"
B) Title: 15 inch laptop <- Google sees three keywords: "15", "inch" and "laptop"

Now if you search for:
15 laptop

Then B) has a chance of showing up (a tiny chance, but still a chance) because Google indexed the keyword "15" independently of other keywords.

However, A) likely won't show up because Google indexed the keyPHRASE "15 inch" i.e. the hyphen acted to glue the two keywords together, as far as Google sees things.

At the same time, there is a tiny chance that Google will prefer A) for a search for "15 inch laptop" because it contains the keyphrase "15 inch" not just the keywords "15" and "inch".

I have to use the word "likely" because Google applies fuzzy matches to searches, i.e. it goes beyond the original intent of a search to try and widen the number of relevant results it returns. And it is possible - though unlikely - that 15-inch could get fuzzy matched and show up for searches that don't contain the exact expression "15 inch".

 

[StClaire]

Hi Edwin,
thank you for you reply. Let me to ask again maybe stupid questions. I work on the website focused on 17 inch laptops. I've got keywords within the domain. Good. But now I want to SEO optimize my pages. The Google keyword planner suggest me that:
17-inch laptop gets about 2900 searches a month in the Uk
the same estimates search volume as 17 inch laptop ( with he the gap behind 17).
While 17inch laptop without gap gets just about 80 searches a month.

So gap actually matters

Ok so far. So will I write within my text about 17 inch laptop or 17-inch laptop it doesn't matter as Google sees them as the same phrase, Got I this right?

 

[Murray]

Are you working as an SEO for someone?

 

[StClaire]

Hi Murray, definitely not. Trying to orientate myself in the SEO jungle right now

 

[gordi555]

If you can, use both, and see how they rank for both keywords once indexed by Google.

It's better to get seen by low competition then be on page two with more competition.

 

[Edwin]

Google keyword tool now only reports exact matches.

It will therefore show you the same result for "17-inch laptop" and "17 inch laptop".

As I tried to explain, "-" is a word separator AND glue. " " is just a word separator, but does not act as glue.

So Google sees "17-inch laptop" as the keyphrase "17 inch" and the keyword "laptop" in that order.

It sees "17 inch laptop" as the keyword "17", the keyword "inch" and the keyword "laptop" in that order.

From an exact match perspective, the above are therefore the same.

Where they start to differ is when we're no longer looking at exact match situations.

That's where the keyphrase "17 inch" that Google indexed from "17-inch" (created by the glue effect of the "-") will start to affect results differently than the two separate kewords from "17 inch" would.

Here's an example.

17 square inch laptop cover

The Google search 17 inch laptop will be a broad match for the above (since the above contains all 3 of the keywords)

The Google search 17-inch laptop will not be a broad match for the above (since the above doesn't contain the keyphrase "17 inch")

It is a subtle distinction, and not likely to have a huge effect in practice, but it does exist!

 

[StClaire]

Thanks for the reply. I feel like I am getting into it now .-7