Skip to main content

Hyphen or an Underscore!

Updated post here - Hyphen or Underscore in URLs: Which One to Use for Inner Pages in Your Website?



When it comes to search engine optimization, we all are aware that what to choose, as keywords and what not to choose.

There is a common belief that if you have to name the internal pages of your website, then you should take keywords for the same (business specific), by considering the following things,

  • Check the theme of the page and select the keyword reflecting the webpage,
  • The keyword selected should be the popular keyword and
  • By creating the category(ies) in the form of top navigation, left or right navigation along with the footer links, as important business related keywords.


The point to be noted here is, that keywords should be inserted but the important thing to be taken into consideration is that it should not make the webpage spammy.


What to choose, "a Hyphen or an Underscore" while naming the internal webpages for the site?

This is the very basic and important question which should be answered before naming the webpages for the website. The point as discussed above is to keep the keywords, as the internal webpage URL, in order to circulate the keyword.


Now comes the three situations and to choose which is the best as far as the SEO point of view is concerned,

  • Two Keywords (or 3 Keywords) - joining them without a space, or
  • Two Keywords (or 3 Keywords) - seperating them with an underscore, or
  • Two Keywords (or 3 Keywords) - seperating them with a hyphen


There is the following drawback if we consider the first point, I.e., joining two words without space, underscore or hyphen.


Before discussing the above point we should remember one thing in mind, that "as a user will I be typing that word without space? or will I be interested in such long search term query". Based on this the explanation to the joined keywords is, that 1 user in 100's or 1000's will come and try to put that type of search term, so unless and until the keyword chosen is extremely popular its not worth to use it.


Now we should see the Underscore and the Hyphen stuff. Both Undersocre and the Hyphen are an appropriate way to name your webpages using keywords. Both are used to segregate one word into meaningful words.


But we have one basic thing associated with underscores, and that an underscore may just merge with the line, whereas a hyphen can't. In laymen language a hyphen looks and makes the webpage more readable and easy for navigation to the visitors as compared to the underscore.


The bottom line is you can use hyphen for the inner webpages and also the underscores, but my preference goes with the hyphen, as I did Google search for some keyword by using a hyphen and an underscore. And I got two different search results,

  1. with Hyphen it was cool, in the sense that those two words were treated as different when I placed hyphen, and
  2. with Underscore it was different, and I got a message as to saying that am I looking for a different keyword.



Updated post here - Hyphen or Underscore in URLs: Which One to Use for Inner Pages in Your Website?


Some Useful Links




Related Posts

Suggested Reading

Most Read SEO Articles
Labels:

Comments

marketing boca said…
It is really interesting how minute details like this (i.e. hyphen or underscore, dl) can affect your success on Google search results rankings. I prefer using a hyphen over underscore.
September 18, 2009
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

List of 100 Article Directories

An article is an essay or a research on a particular topic. Article provides a lot of exposure to your business and very high relevant traffic to your website. Other than providing the quality traffic, article submission has SEO benefits also, it gives a valuable back-link to the website. So here we go with the list of 100 Article Submission websites, "BEST 100 ARTICLE DIRECTORIES" S.No. ARTICLE DIRECTORY PR SUBMISSION PAGE STATUS 1 MAGPORTAL 7 Submit Article SIGN UP 2 EMEDIAWIRE 6 Submit Article SIGN UP 3 EZINEARTICLES 6 Submit Article SIGN UP 4 GOARTICLES 6 Submit Article SIGN UP 5 WEBPRONEWS 6 Submit Article SUBMIT 6 ARTICLEPOOL 6 Submit Article SIGN UP 7 MARKETINGSOURCE ARTICLES 5 Submit Article SUBMIT 8 ARTICLEMOTRON 5 Submit Article SIGN UP 9 ARTICLESON 5 Submit Article SIGN UP 10 ARTICLESBASE 5 Submit Article SIGN UP 11 BUZZLEARTICLES 5 Submit Article SIGN UP 12 ARTICLEALLEY 5 Submit Article SIGN UP 13 ARTICLE DASHBOARD 5 Submit Article SIGN UP 14 WEB-SOURCE 5 Submit A
10 comments
Read more

Optimizing Your Website for Local Searches: A Local SEO Guide

Local SEO Guide In today's digital landscape, local businesses must prioritize their online presence to attract and retain local customers. One of the most effective strategies for achieving this is by optimizing your website for local searches. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the key steps and best practices to boost your local SEO and ensure that your website ranks prominently in local search results. The topics covered in the local SEO guide are listed below,   Understanding Local SEO Keyword Research for Local SEO On-Page Optimization Techniques Website Localization Google My Business Optimization Local Link Building Strategies Mobile Optimization for Local Searches Online Reviews and Reputation Management Social Media for Local SEO Tracking and Measuring Local SEO Performance Please comment if you feel something is missing! Understanding Local SEO Local SEO refers to the practice of optimizing a website and online presence to increas
Post a Comment
Read more

How to create XML sitemap for your Blogger Blog Manually?

How to Create XML sitemap for your Blogger Blog Manually? Creating an XML sitemap for your Blogger blog can be done manually by following these steps: Open a text editor Open a plain text editor on your computer, such as Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). Start the XML document Begin by typing the XML declaration at the top of the document: Add the root element Below the XML declaration, add the root element for the sitemap:     Add URL entries For each page of your blog, add a URL entry within the tags. Here's an example for a blog post: Replace "https://yourblog.blogspot.com/your-blog-post-url" with the actual URL of your blog post. Use the tag to specify the date of the last modification in the format YYYY-MM-DD. indicates how frequently the page is likely to change (e.g., "always," "hourly," "daily," "weekly," "monthly," "yearly," "never"). represents the priority of the page on a scal
Post a Comment
Read more

List of 100 Top SEO Forums

Forums are online communities which provides the users to hold discussions, ask/research (already posted) questions, on the world wide web. Generally speaking forums are another name for discussion boards, or message boards. They enables the users to share, discuss or put the questions based on the theme of the websites. Benefits of Forums There are several benefits for which the forums are used, It's an online community where the users of the websites, can interact with the other users, and exchange tips and place questions based on the theme of the website. They save the information posted, and makes it readily available for the others to read the post. The posts get to read again and again, and the user can post the reply to the already placed post. Forums also allow to increase traffic to your website through repeated visits, gain creditability & build relationship with visitors. It also acts as a kind of Direct Advertising, that increases the ROI. There are large number of
9 comments
Read more

Contact Us

SEO Blog will be delighted to provide any sort of web marketing assistance. Contact us for all your SEO related queries at, tusharvickkie (at the rate) gmail (dot) com Remove spaces and braces with the respective symbol in order to contact to SEO Blog. We love to hear from you.
Post a Comment
Read more

Local SEO Guide

Local SEO Guide
The Local SEO Guide - the key steps and best practices to boost your local SEO and ensure that your website ranks prominently in local search results.