Underscore in URL?

I am optimizing a website that has underscores in url. Should I change it to dash or keep it as it is. Will changing my url improve my ranking?

 

Google certainly don't like url structure that have underscores in it and consider as bad seo urls. If you think to change it, then do it.

 

Yes I am thinking about changing the URL structure

 

The website is built using PHP. Should I create a new page and use 301 redirect? But by doing so will it pass the link juice?

 

I will suggest you, use only dash (-) in your URL because it is SEO friendly. It is considered to be more user and product friendly than under score. For example, you can check any high quality website's URL structure. All of them will be using a dash in their URLs.

 

Better to use dash instead of underscore after changing the url use 301 redirect from the new to the old url

 

Dash is SEO friendly? Now who or what gave you that idea? There is only 1 valid advice here - if you can change the domain to something without any symbols or numbers - do it! It doesn't matter from an SEO standpoint but it certainly matters when it comes to the Radio Test. This is basically how easy is the domain remembered when said out loud. If your website has dashes you would need to explain. Lets take elite-plumber-services.com - while easy to understand when you see it, imagine if you are telling it to someone - "so my domain is called Elite Plumber Services with a dash after Elite and another dash after Plumber". Chances are the person would forget it until they have time to visit the site. And even if they remember the keywords, they will most probably forget the dashes, because it just feels more natural that way. So do yourself a favor and if you can get a domain without dashes or numbers - do it.

P.S. The advice about the 301 redirect is spot on, this way you will lose little to no link juice

 

Really well said, Rado_ch.
How does dash more SEO friendly is beyond me. Dash, underscore or anything else have absolutely no impact on how SE's see your website from SEO perspective.
The only reason dash is better than underscore is because underscore is more difficult to see and some people might confuse it with a space so they will mistype your URL.

 

change it to (-)

 

Underscore is way too odd and SEO unfriendly. Dash is the most you can use as separator in url-s.

 

There is no difference for Google and even other SE's. I wouldn't change it unless the website is being blacklisted by Google!!

 

Never knew why underscores where used in the first place. Always prefered dashes above underscores.

 

Change underscores to dash. Underscores are not a good option.

 

Change it and redirect the domain name.

 

The rankings for main keywords have gone down so do you think this might be the problem? Previously all the keywords were on the first page now they are nowhere to be found.

 

The domain name of the website is proper. Only problem is other pages have underscores in URL.

 

At one time.... This_was_considered_one_keyword and this-was-four-keywords... However, I'm unsure if this still holds true but I would stick with dashes since they are the standard character to separate keywords...

 

Yes, I saw matt cutt's video on youtube in which he said that underscores between the URLs is considered as one word while separator in URL separates the keywords, looks good and is SEO friendly.

 

Don't use undersocres in the URLs. Right practice is to put the '-' in the URL to seperate words in the URLs

 

Yes you need to use hyphen instead of underscore. Hypen URL are SEO Friendly. Also redirect underscore URL to Hypen.