Which are the best seperators to use in folders...for example: this-one or this_one so it would be /this-one/ or /this_one/... also for the file names, which would you recommend, similiarly /this-folder/this-file.htm etc...or a combination /this-folder/this_file.htm Thank you!
It is said google are soon going to be using the underscore (_) to seperate the urls now. previously it would be considered thisone and not "this" "one". so either will be good soon. I would try to keep them both the same if you are doing deeper files...
That's right. Probably not much difference between those two, or so small gain with '_' that I don't thing you should waste a time to consider which one is better - just use one of them, and put more attention to the content.
I have heard that dashes are prefered to underscores but I don't see any reason from a programming perspective why they wouldn't be viewed the same. I have tried dash and they work very well but I don't have data on underscores.
- is known to perform much better, it is not like the _ is not supported by Google or something, just that hyphens perform better. I don't know what ColumK that underscore is now going to be supported by Google...but i would like to read on that if he can provide me with a link. Thanks.
i have tried both as well and i really dont see any difference, but i do know underscore _ is how it all started as a connection from one word to another and later on dashes came in the picture, so i assume underscore has more pull, so i assume
Matt Cutts has answered this question less than a year ago. According to his response Google see's This_is as Thisis whereas G see's This-is as This is so the words are viewed as seperate words.
I thought it did matter, but I'm of the school that it makes no difference at all any longer. Why? I've seen the underscore used on some sites of the most successful SEO pros in the business. If they don't care... then it probably is such a minor difference, if any, that it's best to use whatever you have been using or whatever is easier.
Here's the last paragraph from Matt's blog linked to in post above. I got a good laugh at the example domain he used to make a point! LOL! ------ "That’s why I would always choose dashes instead of underscores. To answer a common question, Google doesn’t algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url. Of course I can only speak for Google, not other search engines. And bear in mind that if your domain looks like buy-cheap-viagra-online-while-consolidating-your-debt-so-you-can-play-texas-holdem-while-watching-porn com, that may still attract attention for other reasons."
Dashes have always acted as word separators, and underscores are just now catching up - is that a correct statement? I use dashes 100% of the time for that reason.
We're discussing file and directory name structure, not title structure. The '|' character is not allowed in a file or directory name.
As Simey pointed out above -Google now (or will very soon) treat underscores as spaces - previously this only applied to dashes. Matt Cutts live and in person on Saturday (21st July 07) speaking to the WordPress bloggers and fans at WordCamp 2007. One key development that Matt shared with the audience was that underscores in URLs are now (or at least very soon to be) treated as word separators by Google. That's great news, because it historically hasn't been that way. Back in 2005, Matt stated that Google did not view underscores in URLs as word separators. That meant that in a URL like http://www.mysite.com/iphone_review.html Googlebot couldn't "see" the words iphone or review. Instead it read iphone_review as one word. I wouldn't recommend targeting "iphone_review" as a keyword. See here: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9748779-7.html