Page Nomenclature for search engines

Need programming proof for dashes in URLs

[hdorland]

My programmers refuse to change their standards to include dashes and underscores in page names and domains. They say that the search engines do not care. Is there any proof that a MCSD will accept that dashes and underscores effect rankings?

[takagi]

Hi hdorland, welcome to WebmasterWorld.

If you want to change the pages, use hyphens. An underscore is considered to be a letter whereas a hyphen is not. So blue_widget is one long 11-letter word. blue-widget contains 2 words: 'blue' and 'widget'. See also these threads: Hyphen or Underscore? - what's the best keyword delimiter? [webmasterworld.com] and hyphen or underscore? [webmasterworld.com]. It seems Google doesn't care that much. But if someone links and uses your URL as a tag, it helps on Google also. For FAST (www.alltheweb.com) it should improve your rankings.