Hyphen / Underscore

why we should avoid underscore and use hyphen between the words?

Example http://websiteurl.com/Web-Designers-SEO-Tips.

 

My experience is that this has no-to little effect. I've reached top positions in the same niche with both the hypen and underscore.

 

But dude yesterday I got one article on SEO , where I found this. anyway thanks for your quick reply.

 

Google don't current recognise an underscore as a space, so keyword_rich is read as keywordrich but keyword-rich is read as keyword rich.

There are plans to change this, but no date has been put in place to my knowledge.

Matt Cutts on dashes vs underscores - http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

 

i think hyphens are better personally. But make sure it's not more than 3-4 hyphens otherwise it may be classed as spam.

 

I also put dashes in the structure of URL than underscores. But I didn’t know that Google don't current recognize an underscore as a space, so keyword_rich is read as keyword rich but keyword-rich is read as keyword rich.

 

I always use underscore - it stands for separate keywords..

 

Hypen is seen as a divider to Google in URLs contrary to underscore.

 

Nope, read the link to Matt Cutt's post above.

 

I'm not going to say which is right and which is wrong in this matter as I don't know for sure and there are, as above, differences of opinion. I will say, however, that I always preferred the use of hyphens after reading Matt Cutts' post, as referenced above, many years ago.

For what it's worth here's a search term naturally, with hyphens and with underscores; the hyphenated search term, which you'd probably never use, does, anecdotally, better mirror the results for the natural term.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=electronic+point+of+sale&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=electronic-point-of-sale&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=electronic_point_of_sale&btnG=Search

This example might help you better judge for yourself which to choose

HTH

 

We only use hyphens (-).

 

they are no difference for seo, but i think underscore is better for human been to read.

 

Haven't you read any posts on this thread ???

 

People should receive infractions for stupidity.

 

that's a bit harsh

Where is the line between stupidity and ignorance?

 

The line is easily drawn in the conversations above. There's no excuse for ignorance when the link to the article is posted right there. Some people need to learn how to RTFA.

On a separate note, I've always used hyphens b/c that's what blogger used. Seeing how they are a Google property, it made sense to me.

 

I totally agree. Nothings annoys me more than those thread with one simple question and the exact same answer 25 times.

 

Welcome to DP over the past couple of years. The vast majority of people posting their SEO 'knowledge' quite clearly haven't got the first clue what they're talking about and are just trying to pad their post count.

There is a small core of knowlegeable people, but their posts get buried in the deluge of rubbish.

For serious SEO discussion these days you're better of reading places like Sphinn or SEOMoz. I only still answer questions here as I'm here most of the day buying links so it's only fair to give something back to the newbies and help them out when they'e stuck.

 

I like hyphens over scores.. it looks more natural to me.. and they make no difference in terms of SEO

 

Point proven