Keyword separators in URL using '+ ' or '-'

[fahad direct]

Which space separator is better for SEO friendly URL '+' or '-'. My question is if hyphen '-' is better but due to some restriction can i use '+' as placeholder?

[BenFox]

I've not done any research into this myself but from what I've read any of the below are fine

$-_.+!*'(),

[tedster]

Here's a recent thread that touches on many issues about characters in the URL - [webmasterworld.com...]

[ryno267]

only use dashes.
best practice. example.com/clean-urls-good-seo

If you have ajaxed content you can use #! in url too and they will still rank w/o issue

[edited by: goodroi at 11:48 am (utc) on Jan 5, 2011]
[edit reason] examplified [/edit]

[fahad direct]

I believe hyphens/dashes are good to go but i still couldn't find if '+' could be used as place holder though i can see lot of good ranked sites having '+' as words connector in their urls?

[ryno267]

well encoded a + is %2B. No reason not to use dashes instead.

edit... let me rephrase that a bit... in order for the symbol to be proper in the url it needs to be encoded... in theory and from what I know G indexes a + like a - and if you're using +'s for rewrites in a dynamic string that could screw it up?

I just don't trust it... you need to have clean urls - if you're questioning it so much use -'s... they're safe w/o a doubt

[FrancisW]

In the old days the rule was "word_word" would give serps with THAT TERM. Is that the same now?

[tedster]

Google changed that, to a degree, a few years ago. Today they can pull out a keyword from the URL even if it's only separated by an underscore. However, the value of any keyword in the file-path is quite negligible, so it's not worth the many challenges of changing existing URLs.

So the way Google handles underscores is better today, but dashes are still smoother sailing. Reference: Dashes versus Underscores [mattcutts.com]

[ryno267]

Google might have updated better but that doesn't mean bing, yahoo, and anybody else have. Use dashes not underscores or pluses or whatever. use dashes. This really shouldn't be a question anymore.