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underscore as word separator

by Steviebone
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
How does Google treat the following words as keywords in url path? According to the article cited directly below, dashes are the way to go.

http://www.ecreativeim.com/blog/2011...-for-seo-urls/

But this one:

http://12pointdesign.com/advice/dashes_vs_underscores.asp

argues that underscores are better.

Another well written article confuses things even more:

http://deaduseful.com/blog/posts/wor...rators-in-urls

Any thoughts?

Example:

San Diego
San%20Diego
San+Diego
San_DIego
San-Diego

I know that the %20 is the preferred urlencoded space character for a url string.
But how does google see keywords when separated by underscores? Is San-Diego the right choice for a Silo url?

Another example:

Medical Dictionary
Medical_Dictionary
Medical-Dictionary

Does google see them the same? or as one word? That article says the underscore is indexed as MedicalDictionary, but Medical+Dictionary is treated properly. It also suggests staying away from spaces.


Thank you.
#separator #underscore #word
  • Profile picture of the author AndresNWD
    I just think using hyphens as a word separator is just easier to read. I would stick to whatever UX say is better so yeah, Hypens!
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    • Profile picture of the author PBScott
      Hyphens are the best way to go, Google treats it as though it is just a space, and back links work all of the time, most other symbols and spaces will not always back link properly due to encoding set up on many servers, you end up with unreadable third party link backs due to "double encoding"
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  • Profile picture of the author webdevpro
    Using hyphens(-) or the encoded space(%20) serves better as word separator compared to the underline.
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    • Profile picture of the author Zenoth
      In fact, there is not a huge difference between them.

      Hyphens in page URL have become so popular because WordPress (which has the words in the permalinks separated by a hyphen by default).

      There are still, however sites that choose to use underscores.

      I don't think this is a ranking factor in 2015 for SERP and something that greatly influences SEO.

      Yet, a URL using hyphens looks more clean . That's the only reason why I'll go with hyphens and not underscores.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steviebone
      Originally Posted by webdevpro View Post

      Using hyphens(-) or the encoded space(%20) serves better as word separator compared to the underline.
      There is plenty on the use of encoded spaces out there to suggest this is NOT the best approach as far as keywords in URLs are concerned. Maybe this has changed in 2015 but Google has acknowledeged in the past, (and other search bots as well) that any words after the first encoded space may not be ranked.
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
        I have always used hyphens for readability and so I don't look like I am living in 1995.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacobhagberg
    Generally I would look to hyphens in the URL rather than underlines as it is easier to read and also type when you are entering in a URL.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steviebone
    Since in my case the use of hyphenated words themselves were not an issue as far as the SILO URL structure was concerned I went with hyphens. Thanks to all for your contributions.
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