URL Structure

I am curious about the SEO when it comes to URL formating.

If you have a url like

/shoppingcarthero2.html

Code (markup):

Is it better to format it like

/shopping-cart-hero-2.html

Code (markup):

Are the '-' and/or '_' treated as spaces and search engines like google read it better or does it not matter at all?

Also is the number an issue or not?

Is it worth updating the entire sites url structure if this is the case?

 

I've heard that dashes are better than underscores, and the numbers are definitely a non issue.

 

shoppingcarthero2.html and shopping-cart-hero-2.html - both are fine. Search engines are too clever to find the words in the URL.

But don't use '_' (underscore) - that's hard to parse for the bot.

 

Go for dashes as it will be easy for users too where they are being redirected. And for search engine with and without dashes work but I still recommend with dashes

 

For SE and SEO are all same. but for user friendly try to avoid special characters....

 

According to Matt Cutts of Google, it is better to use hyphen (dash) than underscore.

buyfashionhandbag.html & buy-fashion-handbag.html. Both are fine as long as there are no ?_"#$%^*() (special characters)

Enjoy,

 

I don't think it's worth changing your existing URLs. Your time and effort are probably better spent else where...

 

Oh, yeah. Bots are clever enough to parse one symbol (dash), but are too stupid to parse another one (underscore). Nonsense.
Look at the digg urls:
http://digg.com/software/Ultimate_SEO_FAQ_2009_Exposes_The_Hidden_SEO_Secrets
Aren't these underscores?

File names and word-separation symbols are 26th factor. Use them the way you like and forget about this concentrating on what is really important.

 

And Wikipedia uses underscores !

 

Yeah, both guys above have mentioned BIG brands (Digg & Wikipedia), that does not need any Search Engine ranking and they don't care about any SEO factor, because they are already pretty COMMON in visitors/users and have big traffic for their sites.

For general SEO strategies, it is still better to use hyphens than underscores to gain better SE ranking.

Remember: Why the hell would a site with thousands of daily visits would give any importance to SEO???

Regards,

 

I agree, many major websites do not put importance on the SEO tactics. many websites are still using /?p=324874 format ( Including Digital Point ) However according to some sources.

1. Hyphens are better than underscores.
2. Hyphen is better than no hyphen between two words.
3. Number has very little importance so better remove them and save some length, remember, the shorter the better.

So a good idea would be something like this one-:

/shopping-cart-hero.html

Code (markup):

 

these days google can read both underscores and hyphens. it can also distinguish words even when the chars are all strung together. therefore the answer is: it doesnt matter.

what does matter though, is you implement Mod_rewrite which will allow you to turn shoppingcarthero.html into shopping-cart-hero (without the .html). see here: http://www.workingwith.me.uk/articles/scripting/mod_rewrite

I have recently opened an online magazine with a friend that at the moment uses and ugly query string, but we are looking to add mod_rewrite as soon as possible for search engine friendly URLS!

 

1. Filenames are not important factor in SEO.
2. The statement was: "search engines feel hard to index underscored names" which is not true as digg, wikipedia and thousands of other sites clearly show.
3. Our site has thousands of daily visits yet we still give an SEO much of importance.

 

Go for the dashes.

 

Oh yeah to you too.

Please read the blog post by Matt Cutts before posting any comment - Dashes vs. underscores

 

dashes is better

 

1. Having SEO friendly file names IS an important factor of SEO, just Google it "SEO and file names"
2. Search engines does NOT feel hard to index underscore BUT dashes are BETTER than underscores.
3. I wonder if your site is Wikipedia or Digg!!! If not, then you should be doing constant SEO to MAINTAIN your traffic. Whereas Digg & Wikipedia does NOT have to maintain anything, except for quality content.

Hope this clears.

 

I would go for the dashes, it also makes it easier for people to see what they are clicking on, it probably does make it easier for the bot aswell. On my tech blog (geekhang.com) I have dashes between words.

 

When it comes to search engines, it doesn't matter. However, use dasher instead of underscore. For people, use "-" to show them the URL clearly.

 

I think dashes are better simply because of aesthetics. Search engines I believe can find any text, but if its mushed up in a string it may miss it unless its a largely popular group of keywords.