"-" or "_", which is the better seperator?

Hi,


Recently I was told that I should change my webpages from:

The guy said it was better in terms of SEO as Google don't actually consider "_" a seperator.

I was just wondering if this was true? Should I rename all my webpage names to make use of "-"?


Thanks

 

Most people go with - over _. I always went with _ just for looks.

 

Thanks, but does it make any difference for search engine ranking etc...?

 

Maybe. Think of it as a spacer which separates two different words. In your example using a hyphen "-" will separate the words as "free advertising articles" while the other one will be understood as one single phrase composed of three distinct words connected by an underscore "_".

 

Google treats hyphens as spaces. Google does not treat underscores as spaces.

Because of this, the string "snow_plow" will not show up in a search for "snow plow", but the string "snow-plow" will show up in that search.

The end result is that hyphens are much better, from an SEO perspective, than underscores.

This rule seems to hold true for use in text, in file names, and in domain names.

 

Thanks!

God what hassle though... I have to change all those pages from a "_" to a "-"! Oh well I'll do it over the summer holidays...

 

Also does the same apply for directories? I take it

http://www.domain.com/free-articles/

is better than

http://www.domain.com/free_articles/

?

 

I think it does.
Just like what had been said hyphens are treated as a space.

 

and yet dmoz uses underscores... leaves room for question in my book
for my directory i use underscores smiply because of dmoz.org

 

This is a topic that comes up again and again.

In terms of SEO, Matt Cutts has made it clear that a dash is recommended.

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

Check out the above link for the full posting on Matt Cutts' blog.

 

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Dash is recommended IMO

 

Do websites with a hyphen have more or less weight from a SEO perspective?

ie www.my-site.com or www.mysite.com?

 

for brandingh purposes stay away from hyphens, for seo go with hyphens lol
anyway i would say if you can, don't go with hyphens

 

I have used both, and found it makes not difference what so ever.
Also, Darkhodge, if you have pages already ranked in Google, I wouldnt bother changing all page file names. Google will get a bunch of 404 (page not found ) errors when scanning through your site.

I have a highly ranked website using underscores in all filenames. Many of my pages are ranked in the top 10 for decent search terms.

 

Dude, like that is totally what the 301 redirect is for.

 

lol
i love 301 redirects, they saved my life practically

 

Thanks for the advice. You out of bandwith on your site. Please check it out. That's good news in any case you getting traffic!

 

lol yes i have noticed that i am out of bandwidth
currently i do not have the money to upgrade hosts, or the time...
so for this month i am a dead duck however i have made my site less graphics intense for next month

 

I don't actually know how to set-up a 301 redirect yet but once I get the time to change the names of all my files, directories etc.. I will learn.

 

Check How do I create a 301 Redirect?