"-" compared to "_" - Is there a difference?

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For example:

Example.com/anxiety-help.php
Example.com/anxiety_help.php

Is there a difference when trying to rank subpages on google?
#search engine optimization #compared #difference
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  • Not from my own experience, but apparently it is. I am reading a book by Aarron Walter "Building Findable Websites" and he always recommends to use "-" instead of "_". When you use "anxiety-help" search engines read "anxiety" "help", whereas "anxiety_help" is read like "anxiety_help", which is not likely to match search query. At least, according to this book.
  • However i am not sure about the difference between them for ranking, i prefer to use Example.com/anxiety-help.php and i suggest it to you.
    • [1] reply
    • Matt Cutts has said a lot of stuff on this. First that
      an underscore means nothing to a human. But then I
      had found this video where he talks about separators.
      A dash is better. I always went with a dash because humans
      (visitors) know what that means. An underscore, not so much.
      Here is a semi-recent answer:
      YouTube - Should I use underscores or hyphens in URLs?
      I know some don't like Matt Cutts...Sometimes, he's all we got.

      Paul
      • [1] reply
  • I had no idea you could even use underscores in page names. I don't think I've ever seen that used before, now that I think of it. Hyphens definitely look better, SEO factors aside.
    • [1] reply
    • looks like i gotta lot of revisions to make then... lol
  • "The reason why we typically never talk stuffs in the future is that it gives us the freedom to change our minds."

    Currently, dashes are the ones preferred to be use as separators but who knows? The gameplay might change in the future.
  • _ is a null character like space. - is a character. It is not wise to use _ for separating words in a url. Better practice is - .
  • a "-" hyphen is more preferred to "_" underscore and its a good practice too
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