SmileMagician
asked on
SEO: hyphens or underscores?
Hey everyone!
I am on a quest to optimize my coldfusion site. I already have my dynamic pages '?'s and '='s converted to '/'s and thats working great. What I was wondering was if anyone had any thoughts as to whether seperating keywords in URLs should be done with hyphens or underscores....? i.e.:
http://www.domain.com/apple-sauce-is-delicious/
OR
http://www.domain.com/cheese_and_crackers/
Is one more effective than the other? And also, should I be sure to have my pages end in directories like my little example or is http://www.domain.com/apple-sauce-is-delicious.cfm just as good?
Thank you! SmileMagician
I am on a quest to optimize my coldfusion site. I already have my dynamic pages '?'s and '='s converted to '/'s and thats working great. What I was wondering was if anyone had any thoughts as to whether seperating keywords in URLs should be done with hyphens or underscores....? i.e.:
http://www.domain.com/apple-sauce-is-delicious/
OR
http://www.domain.com/cheese_and_crackers/
Is one more effective than the other? And also, should I be sure to have my pages end in directories like my little example or is http://www.domain.com/apple-sauce-is-delicious.cfm just as good?
Thank you! SmileMagician
Hi SmileMagician,
We use
http://www.domain.com/cheese_and_crackers/
instead of this
http://www.domain.com/cheese-and-crackers/
Purely because it's much easier to read and as pinaldave said - is more often used, not just in numbers but addresses etc, etc. Also think that _ is sometimes used in email addresses and the like. ie: bill_gates@microsoft.com
Regards
Plucka
We use
http://www.domain.com/cheese_and_crackers/
instead of this
http://www.domain.com/cheese-and-crackers/
Purely because it's much easier to read and as pinaldave said - is more often used, not just in numbers but addresses etc, etc. Also think that _ is sometimes used in email addresses and the like. ie: bill_gates@microsoft.com
Regards
Plucka
Comment - i think i would prefer - rather than _
the reason is that
when user seach for "apple sauce delicious"
apple-sauce-is-delicious can be found simple because its not a 1 word. apple-souce-delicous will be higligthed.
compared to apple_sauce_is_delicious, "apple sauce delicious" cannot be found, i think(95%)
the reason is that
when user seach for "apple sauce delicious"
apple-sauce-is-delicious can be found simple because its not a 1 word. apple-souce-delicous will be higligthed.
compared to apple_sauce_is_delicious, "apple sauce delicious" cannot be found, i think(95%)
ASKER
Oh my, those are all good thoughts. I am not sure which to do now... =)
SM
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ASKER
Ahhh, there we go. Thats what I was unsure about. Thank you all very much!
SmileMagician :)
SmileMagician :)
I will suggest to you to use _(underscore) instead of -(minus/dash).
The reason is that sometime, I need to pass the number in the url param meters and - may confuse them if you are using them as param... it will become negative number... so you will have to take care of so many issues at that time... I will rather prefer to use _ as theyare easy to read and may not create confusion.
Otherwise, I do not see much of the problem with them with search engine or any other navigation issues...
Regards,
---Pinal