Emoji SEO’s Opportunities:
Emojis are on the verge of changing language as we know it.
While they are mainly used for instant messaging they are increasingly being utilized in SEO strategy to help with organic rankings.
Many businesses stand to gain an advantage and more noticeability amongst the crowd of results on Google and other search engines.
Should You use Emojis in Your SEO Strategy?
We’ll take you through the emerging best practices in the world of SEO and emojis so your business can be on the cutting edge of the latest SEP trends.
Emojis in Search Results
Emojis will help your website stand out in search results.
Certain industries are looking harder at this new SEO strategy than others.
For example, an eCard website might want to display a happy face emojis next to a happy birthday eCard listing.
By doing this, they will attract more attention and encourage click through rates.
Using Ignite Visibility as an example, we might want to display a celebratory emoji next to a page that talks about an award we have won.
Should You use Emojis in Your SEO Strategy?
There are a few great reasons to strongly consider adding emojis to your organic SEO strategy.
Under Google’s new move to support emojis on desktops and the fact they are an increasingly popular trend, which will only continue to grow, the characters have the potential to increase CTR.
They make your search listing stand out and have increased visibility among many thousands upon thousands of results and in that competitive landscape every small advantage matters.
Smaller businesses may have the most to gain since the use of emojis is a less competitive form of SEO and the use of an emoji is a unique way to elevate your rankings.
The use of emojis is a great way to appeal to younger demographics which make up a huge part of the population who are searching online for what seems like everything.
Emojis relay a deeper level of expression which is what marketing is all about.
If you have the ability to connect to buyers in an emotional and playful way it can be really beneficial.
One of the best aspects about an emoji is the fact they carry an expression that conveys deeper emotion, which can be used to help users truly understand the context of a conversation.
As a result, the characters make your website more relatable to users, increasing the trust factor.
As a rule of thumb, while Google is still allowing these in the search space, any article that has an emotional element should be considered for emoji optimization.
How title emojis effect SEO?
Since CTR has a high correlation with ranking because Google takes the user experience very seriously, incorporating emojis into your SEO strategy only further stacks the cards in your favor, even if the advantage is only slight.
When using emojis, use them sparingly in your page titles, meta descriptions, Google My Business Listing Titles, and AdWords Ads.
They are not a decorative feature you want to clutter your website with.
You want to use a relevant emoji and not just throw up any character.
For example, consider using the phone character for your contacts page, people for your about page, or a gift image for your sale page.
You can also leverage the characters in your favor during holidays and seasonal offerings.
While search results with an emoji is somewhat of a novelty rather than a useful search feature, incorporating them into your SEO strategy in moderation will increase the appeal of your website among certain visitors, helping your CTR.
I wouldn’t depend on the characters alone to boost your ranking, but any little factor that may promote your visibility on Google is certainly worth the effort.
Some emojis may be filtered out of search results
Despite Google’s overall support of displaying emojis in search engine results there are instances where Google which choose not to include them.
In order to avoid this you must make sure that the emojis will be considered relevant to the search query.
This won’t be too difficult as this, simply, means they will be filtered out of Google finds them to be misleading, out of place, or appear as spam.
It is still worth it to try and include emojis but lower your expectations that they will be included every single time in the results.
The code to add emoticons
You can find a variety of working emoticons to use here.
FAQs
Can I use emojis in my title tags?
Yes, you can absolutely use emojis in your title tag.
For the most part, including an emoji in a title tag is a click through strategy as the emoji will not help improve a page’s ranking.
For those looking to include an emoji in their title tag they can do through a Yoast plug in and it is worth testing to see how it helps your site.
Can I use emojis in my meta descriptions?
Yes, you can definitely use emojis in your meta description for a little added flare.
For the most part, including an emoji in your meta description is a click through strategy.
Emojis will not help improve a page’s ranking but increased engagement is always a positive outcome.
For those looking to include an emoji in their meta description they can do through a Yoast plug in and it is worth testing to see how it helps your site.
Sources:
“Bing Now Lets You Search by Emoji” Search Engine Land
“Google Now Shows Emoji Characters on Desktop Results But Doesn’t Let you Search by The Like Bing” Search Engine Land
