When typing text content in HTML for your small business website, or any site, my advice is using the word “and” instead of the symbol “&” unless that is specifically part of the official name for your company. Certainly many attorney and other partner type company names will use ampersand.

The ampersand is a special reserved code character in HTML and must be coded as “&” to properly display on a page, and to avoid confusion. Otherwise, if you simply use the character “&” it will display on the page, however each occurence is an HTML code error.

The goal in any site should be zero, or near zero code errors. If you hand code your HTML you can eliminate each “&” error by following this advice. Using “and” instead of “&” will make your content more literal for readers and search engines, as well.