How should I deal with spaces in links ?

by Banned 3 replies
6
Hi,
I am generating dynamic links and some don't work.

Is it because they have a space in the link ?

eg: from the name "David Franklyn", I get the link

<a href="www.mysite/David Franklyn/sports/Franklyn.html">David Franklyn</a>

What would be the best way to deal with the spaces ?

Someone suggested replacing them withmysite/David%20Franklyn/sports/Franklyn.html
or
mysite/David-Franklyn/sports/Franklyn.html
or
mysite/David_Franklyn/sports/Franklyn.html

or something else ?

Does anyone know about these things ?

Thanks for any help.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #deal #links #spaces
  • Hi,

    In my experience, none of them carry Search Engine or SEO benefit. You can use the "%20", the "-" or the "_".

    The only benefit of using the the Dash or Underscore will probably be for you in terms of not accidently creating a broken link.

    I learned my lesson some time back when using links with spaces. My editor would add a "%20", but somehow when uploaded to my site, they still were "broken".

    Lesson: I now only use Dashes (-) and Underscores (_). My preference is for Dashes because someone may not realize there's an Underscore in a link - especially if the link is Underlined.

    Hope this helps.

    - jay
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • I'll vote for hyphens
  • The advantage of using the %20 word separator is
    that browsers display is as a space.

    My personal preference is to use the hyphen (dash)
    when I know the line isn't going to be word-wrapped,
    and therefore potentially, breaking the link.

    HTH

    Glenn
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