better name for pages

underscore or dash

[o0_cops_0o]

I noticed the other sites im competing with there hyperlink pages are two words..exampl www.mysite.com/my_product. where as my links are www.mysite.com/myproduct. is it better to have it my_product? id like to take a step ahead and wonder, instead of my_product i make them my-product? what do you think? help please.

[deejay]

long and the short of it:

you won't get "keyword in url" bonus points for myproduct.html. Google can't tell where to break the words up.

I believe Google is fine with either my_product.html or my-product.html, but I believe my-product.html is more intuitive for users, so I would always opt for that.

[jdMorgan]

cops,

[example.com...] is also easier to read correctly than [example.com...] when both are underlined in link text, because the underscore is hidden by the link underline as shown here.

Jim

[edited by: jdMorgan at 1:49 am (utc) on Mar. 12, 2003]

[o0_cops_0o]

jdmorgan so your saying the underscore is better than the dash because it gets hidden by the underline?

[caine]

I think JD is saying the opposite.

I remember reading that SE's in the most part actually parse better, or at all when you use - / rather than _, can't remember the reasoning behind it, though.

[jdMorgan]

Try reading both, as if to a friend on the phone. You'll have to hover over the undescored version (if you even think to do it) to find out if that is a space or an underscore. The hyphen is clearer.

Jim

[TheComte]

http://www.example.com/my-product.html is also easier to read correctly than [example.com...] when both are underlined in link text, becuase the underscore is hidden by the link underline as shown here.

It would seem that the second example with the hidden underscore would be more intuitive since it is usually gramatically correct where the dash is not in most cases. From a Google standpoint this may not be the case however. I have heard that Google considers two keywords seperated by an underscore as one word, not two.

[o0_cops_0o]

I have about 300 two word pages. Im going with the dash and hope you guys are right lol. I have alote of work ahead of me..i hope i can do it before the deepcrawl really starts crawling deep.

[caine]

Comte,

I've come accross similar info, but i can't remember where, though grammatically i would still go for the hyphen against an underscore which is not prevelant in the English language

[TheComte]

Hidden was the keyword. I agree that the underscore is not prevalent. It just reads better. Of course, the more correct "space" should be avoided at all cost.

[coconutz]

Recent discussion:

Hyphen or Underscore? [webmasterworld.com]

Check message #8 and #12.

[Lundy]

I have a situation where we have a keyword-keyword-keyword URL for a geographic location that gets relayed to people over the phone frequently, as in "to see the rental condominium location on the map, go to our website bla, bla, bla" and Surprising as it may be, we found that the so called 'general public' in the USA often does not know the meaning of the word 'hyphen'---some will tell you but many will not admit it, we have had to be sure to say 'dash' as more people seem to know the meaning of that word---so with this in mind--it is doubtful that these same individuals would know where the 'underscore' key was or even what it was if told to type it in!
Sad, sad, sad

[conor]

Underscores seem to work better than hyphens in my experience, I have used keyword_location.htm and Expalnitory_text_and_keyword_etc.htm with some sucess in the past.

[Namaste]

is keyword in URL still a factor? I thought it was dead?
Can anyone confirm they are seeing benefits from it?

BTW, Google itself uses a string with the + sign in it, not _ or -

[ncw164x]

I have always favoured underscore rather than hyphen to break up a directory name or page title. You can see the words easier in the address bar, but like everything else you should go with your own judgement