Search engines and correct HTML

Use of character codes and effect on search engines

[fatras]

First posting, so excuse any mistakes!

I have a website that frequently uses the "&" character (it is in fact part of the company name.)

Whilst I have been warned not to include it in the url (and taken notice), how should I use it in the body of the copy

If I am sticking to true HTML, I guess I should use & but how would a search engine react to this?

For example, when creating a website for a company called "Cats & Dogs" should one use "Cats & Dogs"? What would happen when a user searched for "Cats & Dogs" - as this exact phrase would not appear on the page?

Thanks a lot for any inputs, I have been browsing around webmasterworld for a while, and am thoroughly impressed by what I have seen so far

[korkus2000]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld fatras,

The reason you are told to stay away from it in URLs, is because the & character is part of a dynamic url.

www.mysite.com/page.htm?name1=value1&name2=value2

& is valid and will not cause any indexing problems in the content. If it is part of the company name then use it.

[andreasfriedrich]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com] fatras.

Be sure to read Marcia`s WebmasterWorld Welcome and Guide to the Basics [webmasterworld.com] post.

Google will just ignore the ampersand ;) unless you use it in quoted a phrase. Entities should and will be interpreted as the literal character that they represent.

Andreas

[fatras]

Thanks, Knew I could rely on a speedy response!