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Change b2b ecommerce website urls from underscore to hyphens?

by rufuspaul
4 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello. Our b2b website currently uses underscores to separate words, and I have read that it is much more preferable to use hyphens. So would it be wise to change this? We have thousands of products online so if so, would I need to do 301 redirects for every page, or can they be done as groups / sections?

Thanks for any help in advance that you might be able to offer.
#b2b #change #ecommerce #hyphens #underscore #urls #website
  • Profile picture of the author AndresNWD
    Using hypens it's much better, but changing your URLs would make your website totally different to Google's eyes. You will likely lose your rankings if you don't make 301 redirects to all your products. I think it can be done easily with a regular expression, but ask your developers.
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    • Profile picture of the author rufuspaul
      Thanks for your reply Andres. I have heard people say that 301's don't pass on all the link juice, however customers dont really link to the individual product pages as we are b2b. So I presume this wouldnt be an issue..or am I missing another factor?

      Matt
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      • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
        Originally Posted by rufuspaul View Post

        Thanks for your reply Andres. I have heard people say that 301's don't pass on all the link juice, however customers dont really link to the individual product pages as we are b2b. So I presume this wouldnt be an issue..or am I missing another factor?

        Matt
        301's pass around 75%-85% of link juice (estimation, no definite figure). Still, you need to 301 redirect all old URL's to new URL's immediately.

        Going forward as a long-term plan, it would be ideal to use dashes and opposed to underscores.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rank Watch
    Hyphens are definitely better than underscores. They are more Google friendly so I would advise you change underscores to hyphens. Coming to the redirection part, 301 redirection is very important to prevent lose of traffic due to ranking drop. Regarding, whether it can be done in sections or not, it would depend upon the structure of your site. Hence, you should hire a developer in this case.
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