Google has removed emoji support from its search results after websites were using them as ways to reach the front page.
The announcement was first made in May when Google’s webmaster trends analyst John Mueller answered some questions during a Google+ Hangout in May. Any existing site using emoji’s will no longer reap the benefits of enhanced SEO, as they will no longer show within search results. While there is no penalty for using them, it won’t do anything to improve your ranking. You’ll have to find another loophole to reach the frontpage…
The announcement comes at a time when most other websites are adding enhanced support for emoji’s. Instagram, Yelp and Microsoft Bing all include support for the images and let people freely use them as substitutes for text.
Google’s differing approach relates primarily to the technical sides of exploitation and the ability to improve rankings by including them within text. It was a similar story for Unicode back in 2003.
For more on Google, visit What Mobile’s dedicated Google page.