Hyphen or Underscore ?

I am starting a site where I'll be having profiles of close to a 100 guys.

What is better for SEO purposes:

firstname-lastname.php

or

firstname_lastname.php

??

 

hyphen is easier to type, does not need the use of the shift key.
by google is treated as a space.
so yellow-paint.php 2 keywords yellow_paint.php would be one word and few would search for that.

also see http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/


Underscore can look like a space then the link is underlined and can thus cause confusion when typed manually

 

vagrant is correct,

Hyphen is the way to go

 

Definitely the dash - because of the search engine indexing things which you may saw on matt cutts blog BUT also for a more evident reason: when you make a hyperlink (and you have a URL which has underscores _ ) you can't see the underscore!

So dashes (or hypens) are better than underscores

 

It should be consistent but like vagrant mentioned underscores can be confusing when the link is underlined. Many of them as a convention use hyphen for directories and underscores for filenames (especially if you are using .php file).

 

It doesnt matter one bit to search engines, but from a users point of view, a hyphen is always the best option .

 

link_with_underscores

link-with-hyphens

 

It doesnt really matter (at least to Google) anymore.

 

I'd go with the hyphens. Much easier to visualize.

 

Matt Cutt's article on the situation. I always go with dashes.

 

Both have the same value from SEO perspective,personally I prefer dashes though.

 

I always use dashes, except for file names (use underscores). Not really sure why I do... but thats what I do.

 

use hyphen.

 

Dash is easier to type.
I'm agree with vagrant

 

That article is out-dated.

Read: Underscores are now word separators, proclaims Google

 

Hyphen is the best choice.
As well as hyphen is the best separator to choose in title tag also.

 

There is no difference as long as it is not dynamic

 

I think this one is better

irstname-lastname.php

 

what makes you think so?

 

it does not matter, i have observed my sites with different type for a long time.