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Which of these 2 URL formats are more important to Google Search Engine?

Discussion in 'Google' started by adflakes.com, Jan 8, 2007.

  1. #1
    Can you please help me explain which of the 2 URL formats are more important to Google SERPS?

    www.sample.com/this+is+the+topic+of+my+page.html

    or

    www.sample.com/this_is_the_topic_of_my_page.html

    Can google distinguish the words in the URL for both cases? Advantages and disadvantages?

    Thanks for your time
     
    adflakes.com, Jan 8, 2007 IP
  2. codeber

    codeber Peon

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    #2
    for me, using the underscore has always been better.

    I don't know why, it just has
     
    codeber, Jan 8, 2007 IP
  3. Sandpetra

    Sandpetra Guest

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    #3
    Google doesnt recognise the underscore as a seperator.

    However, why are you even bothering with this?

    Content on the page is the main point - and links to it. The page name you suggest means (I assume) you will have this in the page title and H1 tag.

    Keywords in the page name wont really be needed if the content is good and the page is semantically correct.

    You can call your page anything.:p
     
    Sandpetra, Jan 8, 2007 IP
  4. domi

    domi Peon

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    #4
    I'm not sure why but at some point I switched from using underscores to using dashes and that's what I'm still using for all of my sites. I wish I could explain why though... :(
     
    domi, Jan 8, 2007 IP
  5. freestate

    freestate Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Someone explained it to me like this:

    Go to google and run a search on '_' (just an underscore) - you'll get something like 710,000,000 results returned (i.e. it exists)

    Do the same for a hyphen '-' and you'll get exactly zero results returned i.e. it doesn't exist

    If you're trying to optimise a page title/domain whatever, then it's far best to use something that doesn't exist as a separator because Google will then interpret the title as separate words:

    a-random-page-title therefore becomes: a random page title

    whereas a_random_page_title stays exactly that, and so isn't really optimized for anything other than people searching for a_random_page_title (which is unlikely)

    '+' works pretty much the same as '-', but I personally think '-' reads better

    Oh, and what someone said about content was important too :)
     
    freestate, Jan 8, 2007 IP
  6. domi

    domi Peon

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    #6
    Ha! Got it! It's because Matt Cutts told me to use dashes! :)
    Read all about it here: Dashes vs. underscores

    And as you can see, he's using dashes as well...
     
    domi, Jan 8, 2007 IP
    vishwaa likes this.
  7. vishwaa

    vishwaa Well-Known Member

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    #7
    vishwaa, Jan 8, 2007 IP
  8. Michael

    Michael Raider

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    #8
    Michael, Jan 8, 2007 IP
  9. adflakes.com

    adflakes.com Peon

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    #9
    This was my belief I think 6 months ago. Then I tried placing the title of the page in my URL. And it made a big difference. I never hit the first page of Google SERPS before but after doing this, I sometimes made it to number 1.

    I don't argue that the content is the main point. But if it helps google to know what my pages are really all about through the URL, I think it will be worth doing it. And it is automatic with my website (i.e. it automatically appends the page title to the URL). I only want to know what must be the correct separator.

    And yes, I forgot about the dash :p
     
    adflakes.com, Jan 9, 2007 IP
  10. adflakes.com

    adflakes.com Peon

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    #10
    To all those who responded, thanks very much. I actually forgot about the dash. Thanks also for the links to other articles. I am going to read it now. :)
     
    adflakes.com, Jan 9, 2007 IP
  11. Sandpetra

    Sandpetra Guest

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  12. adflakes.com

    adflakes.com Peon

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    #12
    Anyway, I remember now why we are using "+" and not "-". Because URL encoding in PHP automatically converts spaces to "+"

    I have a follow up question related to changing URLs but it might be already off-topic so I guess I'll create another thread for it.

    Thanks again everyone for your response. Very helpful :)
     
    adflakes.com, Jan 9, 2007 IP
  13. sunmoon

    sunmoon Peon

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    #13
    Wow, really nice info here. I never though about url structure. Domi, thanks for the link to matt cutts side. Nice read.
     
    sunmoon, Jan 9, 2007 IP
  14. atomique

    atomique Peon

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    #14
    atomique, Jan 9, 2007 IP