using dashes or underscores in URL's?

Umm yes it is.

I have optimized sites to page one google dozens of times for very good search terms. And this rule as always worked.

The factors of the web pages itself, such as title, meta-tags, ect decide where the domain name will be filed, they will add weight to a domain name

basic example: www.wordword.com

Title: Word Word
Keyword: Word Word

Thes other factors will let the search engine know that wordword.com is actually meant to be word word.com and position it as so. It wont be indexed that way, but it be placed under word word as the search term.

If you decided to use a - in a domain name, that is no longer a great factor as it was a few years ago. It is all based on all the factors of the site and how it optimized.

 

What do your credentials have to do with anything here?

If it was a rule, everyone would be doing it.

You see, I just don't buy into this. I prefer brandable domains that also contain a keyword or two. I'd rather let the page titles, META descriptions, headings, page content and incoming links' anchor text handle the SEO part. When it comes to domain names, I'm looking for names that are easy to remember. Sometimes I get lucky and can get my primary keywords in there, other times I can't.

That makes about as much sense as anything that comes out of Rosie O'Donnel's mouth. If you're going to use a dash as a keyword separator in a domain name, make sure it's used to prevent any confusion with the search engines with regard to the keywords contained in it. A good example would be Experts Exchange. Clearly the search engines know the keywords in experts-exchange.com are "Experts Exchange" but what's to make them think that they could be "Expert Sex Change" in expertsexchange.com instead?

Let's take a look at what you said earlier, shall we?

Huh? They don't matter from a search engine's point of view. The only real difference will be in regard to accessibility and usability. If someone sees www.example.com/example-page.html they'll know there's a space between example and page. However, if the link is www.example.com/example_page.html how is the typical user supposed to know that there's an underscore there? They just might type in the link thinking its a space, have a 404 error get thrown in their face, blame the site owner and LEAVE.

The ONLY time that SEO would come into play here would be for keyword separation, just like with the experts-exchange and expertsexchange example I gave above. Other than that, it makes about as much difference as choosing between apples and oranges (assuming one is not allergic to either one and otherwise has no preference for either type of fruit).

Uhm, no. Need me to debunk that myth again?

 

I see what your saying about the confusion of URL's when people copy and paste, as fot the rest it was just garble.

Let me say this again...The other factors in ones webpage are what are going to determine what a page becomes indexed in. The - or _ make little difference, except for the copy and paste issue. And there is a solution for that, don't make them hyper.

As far as finding brandable easy to use domain names...go for it, it is just harder to optimize for, without taking the keywords into consideration.

Im not here to agrue with you...I have nothing to prove...what I do works for me and that is all that matters.

 

I have seen websites ranking high with urls like: domain.com/djfsdjflsdfl?=hkhh=374389274389275897592879

seoooooh

 

dashes are definately used to separate words in a url.

we usually use underscores to separate IDs from keywords when doing some URL rewriting, and had good results with it

 

Regardless of how search engines see or will see them, underscores are uglier and more of a bother to type.

 

Actually they're not harder to optimize for.

 

That's correct. Dashes are given more importance than underscores by the google

 

i use _for my website.
i dont think it matter. digg uses _ for it site.

 

I go for dashes also.

 

- Dash is better with Google than _ undersocres

1) Google blogspot uses - and not _ see use whatever Google has that's the simple trick

But still as many say the most important is Natural content + relevant backlinks is must for any website to gain relevant traffic.
Don't put much weight on _ or - rather concentrate on users

 

Dashes- is the best way to make sub pages and also choose keywords while writing your URL.

 

yes That's correct. Dashes are given more importance than underscores by the Google

 

I also recommend dashes. Most of webmasters uses dashes. Keyword separated by dashes are considered as two words while it underscore, it's only a single word.

 

- id good in comparision to _

 

dashes are better and experts agree BUT, sorry folks, I have seen countless and many instances of urls "in competitive niches" with interior pages using underscores ranking better than hyphens. So, it really comes down to good SEO not just the extension.

 

hyphens as “Best Keyword Separator.”
Hyphens vs. Underscores – Who Wins “Best Keyword Separator?”
http://pixelposition.com/hyphens-underscores/

 

Yes, I think its better to use dashes than underscore..