Url Rewriting for a site with "_" in URL

Hi
If a site's urls all contain "_" and you want to implement a url rewrite so that all the Urls use "-" what is the best course of action? 301 redirects on all the original files or should I use the Canonical Link Tag?

Thanks for your help

 

301 using htaccess rules would be perfect for this IMO.

 

i think you just need to do steps 2 n 3

 

Canonical Link elements should ONLY be used if you can't 301 redirect. 301 redirects are MUCH better than using the canonical link element. Not all search engines support the canonical link element. Also, even if all engines did support it, the canonical link element prepetuates the use of the non-canonical URLs. People STILL see the old, non-canonical URL in their browser. So they'll continue to copy the undesireable URL when creating links to your site.

301 redirects have been supported for a LOOOOOOOONG time. They are well understood by all search engines and have been the preferred method of solving these types of issues. And the use of 301 redirects will stop the users from seeing the undesireable "_" URLs in their browsers. So going forward all links will get created using the new URLs with the hyphens in them.

If at all possible, use 301 redirects.