proper url format

[jmdb71]

Hello,
I have a site where i put my keywords in my urls, such as
wwww.myproducts.com/Keyword1-Keyword2/Keyword1-Keyword2-Keyword3/index.htm
The pages are just starting to show on google. However, the keywords in the url arent being highlighted. Is this because i made the first letters of the words capitalized? I didnt think this should matter. But if you search for 'ceramic tile wet saws' without the quotes around the words, youll see that only the lowercase words are getting picked up. Whats the deal? Thanks!

[PhraSEOlogy]

Google will hi-lite keywords in the url if they are in lowercase.

[jmdb71]

Thanks. So i believe i can change them all to lowercase, and all my previous links will still redirect, because when i enter say www.MySiTe.com instead of www.mysite.com, it still goes to it. Correct?

[dwilson]

Wrong assumption.

www.MySite.com goes to www.mysite.com b/c DNS is case-insensitive.

/Path1/ may or may not be the same as /path1/ depending on your server's operating system. If you're on a Windows system paths & filenames are case-insensitive. On *nix paths & filenames are case-sensitive so /Path1/, /PATH1/, and /path1/ are 3 different places.

[jmdb71]

Thanks for the response, so...
i was going back and changing the urls to all lowercase instead of the first letters of the keywords being uppercase, like
from Keyword1-Keyword2 to keyword1-keyword2. But, when you type a url in IE, it doesnt matter what letters are upper and lower case, for example if i type in www.MySIte.com, it would go to www.mysite.com. But the internal links in my html all reflect the new urls and i have renamed all my files.
So will google accurately re-interpret the same pages as the new lower case urls? Thanks in advance!

[dwilson]

So will google accurately re-interpret the same pages as the new lower case urls?

I don't think so, but can't promise one way or the other. I think you're going to have to wait for Google to re-index for it to find out that the links have changed.

[jmdb71]

Thanks for the response. This is quite a strange situation. All the existing google links redirect to my new pages with different urls. And even if i tried to create copies of the original pages with 301 redirects, my server claims that i cant have two files with the same name, although one has all lowercase and one doesnt. Hopefully google reindexes correctly. Anyone else know?

[Netizen]

I think in general it is easier for a user to remember a lowercase URL to type in - some web servers are case sensitive (if they are based on Unix/linux) so it can make a difference.

www.mysite.com/blue-widgets

is easier to remember/type than

www.mysite.com/Blue-Widgets

[g1smd]

A URL in capital letters is generally a different page to one not in capital letters.

If you rename stuff, you will need to put in a redirect from the old name to the new name.

In general it is better to use all lower case for the names. Separate the words using hyphens, dots, or commas. Do not use spaces or underscores.

[dwilson]

I think in general it is easier for a user to remember a lowercase URL to type in

In general I agree, but I think there are exceptions where using some capital letters is easier.

Consider www.mysite.com/presidents/GeorgeWashington.php

I find that easier to spell correctly that /georgewashington.php

[Stefan]

And even if i tried to create copies of the original pages with 301 redirects, my server claims that i cant have two files with the same name, although one has all lowercase and one doesnt.

jmdb, I take it the server is running Windows IIS. Because IIS isn't case sensitive, /EXAMPLE.htm is the same file as /example.htm. The best solution in the long run is to move to Apache, using Unix, then you can do 301 redirects for /EXAMPLE.htm to example.htm, and things will all get sorted out by the SE's.

[jimshu79]

So are you saying that this is bad?

[widgetworld.com...]

all my urls are setup like this....
1) is the 01, 02..., 08 hurting me?
2) are the underscores hurting me

[Netizen]

From what everyone has said the underscores are ignored by Google in some sense so keyword1_keyword2 looks like keyword1keyword2 to Google.

[jimshu79]

i see...so i should take out the "08" and change the underscores _ to hyphens -? will that put more emphasis on each keyword?

[g1smd]

Yes, change to hyphens, dots, or commas. Avoid spaces and underscores.

If the numbers can go, then remove them.

For the new page names set up redirects from the old to the new so that visitors following bookmarks, and links from other sites, and search engines revisiting the site, are all redirected to the new pages.

[ThomasB]

underscores work and they're also recognized as separate words.

see the #4 listing:
[google.com...]

[jimshu79]

hi thanks...i'm not sure what to be looking for on that link to google add url search you gave.

[ThomasB]

there's a link to www.google.com/intl/ko/add_url.html

both "add" and "url" are highlighted for me

[g1smd]

They might be highlighted in the SERPs output, but in many cases they aren't recognised as separate words by the search algo itself.

GoogleGuy confirmed that, in this forum, only a few weeks ago.