Hi Alan,
Thanks!
And yes, that’s correct! That’s the mdash code if I’m not mistaken, you can Google Search for it and you can see Google converting it correctly: –.
These are called UTF-8 characters, and are well recognized by every modern browser and Search Engine, especially since there’s a great increase of usage. It’s also done to prevent cross site scripting, so it’s also very secure :).
Focus keywords have been discussed before, however it hasn’t been implemented (yet).
A small summary, and an SEO tip for you to resolve the lack of this feature, is the following, I quote myself:
The problem with keywords nowadays is that Search Engines now also take synonyms into consideration, and you might get the content you were searching for, even if the words don’t match. At the moment I can’t give concrete examples, but it’s there, and it’s becoming more common.
Not only that, your page should not be focusing around a word, but rather around a subject. Stuff that worked a few years ago is slowly but surely fading away, for the Search Engines are being improved to be a more human-like answer machine, rather than what just pops up because the keyword matches.
In other words: Write about your subject, and write it in detail. This way, you don’t need to worry about the keyword and you can safely assume that Google will match your page or post correctly with your subject, even if a synonym of any of your subject’s words are used.
I hope this clears things up! Let me know if you require further assistance ??
Have a great day!
