SEO: Does Google Treat Content With Quotes Or Brackets Differently?

Apr 5, 2018 - 7:46 am 7 by

Google Characters

So let's say you are a big fan of writing content with quotes or brackets but all of a sudden you learn about this thing called SEO [search engine optimization] and you become paranoid that your "SEO" won't be "optimal" if you use brackets a lot of quotes or brackets. Why? Because maybe, just maybe, Google will think that "SEO" means something different than [SEO] or (SEO)?

The question came up on Twitter and Pete Meyers from Moz answered it and John Mueller responded to his answer with a thumbs up.

In short, it doesn't matter much unless it changes the meaning of the sentence or words.

Here are the tweets:

John's head nod, in John fashion:

Of course, using brackets or quotes in your search may and often does change how the search results get returned, but that is easy to test also.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 20, 2025

Jun 20, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Volatility, AI Mode in Search Console, Audio Overviews and ChatGPT Search Quality

Jun 20, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Larger & Longer Issues Can Take Longer To Reverse In Google Search

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Troubleshooting On Blocking Content From AI Mode & AI Overviews

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Video Search Tests Speaker Icon With Language Label

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Investigating Search Clicks Leading To Translated Results

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Uses Many Signals To Know What & If To Show Dates In Search Snippets