characters in filenames

[papamaku]

i know having a minus/dash '-' in a domain or filename is pretty common e.g.

www.domain.com/free-quote.html

and then what about a plus '+'

www.domain.com/free+quote.html

or an underscore '_'

www.domain.com/free_quote.html

do SEs prefer one over another?

[ncw164x]

underscore or hyphen are the only two which you would use for a domain name or file/directory name

ncw164x

[robert adams]

You can use anything you want in a file name, except spaces (if you don't count MS products).
In a domain name, you can only use letters, numbers, and the hyphen/dash ( - ) I don't think you can use an underscore (_) in a domain name. Also, you cannot start a domain name with the hyphen.

robert

[ncw164x]

Yes Robert I stand corrected your right you can't use an underscore (_) in a domain name or have a hyphen at the start of a domain name

The point I was trying to make was if you use any character other than underscore or hyphen in a file name then that page would not rank as high

You can use a space in a file name or directory with Apache but the browser will show it as %20

free%20quote.html instead of free_quote.html or free-quote.html

Apache does not like some special characters and can cause an error or even crash, I had this problem 3 days ago with a character

just tested a file name with the + sign and yes it works but if you would get the page to rank anywhere at a search engine is another matter

ncw164x

[papamaku]

thanks guys for the guidance

it means what i thought - gotta lose the positive and go negative ( + to - )

or should i go to underscores? have there been any tests to see what ranks better (dash or underscore) or is there no difference?

[panic]

There's been lots of debate about wether - or _ ranks better, but I'd go with underscore, since it makes the URL appear to have spaces in it to the end user. That's just me though :P

ADDED Here's an example.

[mydomain.com ]
[mydomain.com ]

[edited by: panic at 11:35 pm (utc) on Dec. 8, 2003]

[robert adams]

I am no expert. I have read that there is no difference to the search engines between - or _ or + or whatever. The idea is that the search engine will see it as two words that it can understand instead of one word that it doesn't. The question then becomes, does that make any difference to your ranking. Some say yes, some say no, some say yes but not enough to worry much about.
If you are starting afresh, it might be a good idea to use it, but probably not worth renaming 1000 pages.

robert

[panic]

If you are starting afresh, it might be a good idea to use it, but probably not worth renaming 1000 pages.

If it's a database driven page/site, it might just come down to changing the hyphen to an underscore in two or more places.

[TGecho]

Just be careful with how you change your links. If anyone has linked to or bookmarked a page, you don't want to feed them a 404.

Periods can also be used.

[panic]

Just be careful with how you change your links. If anyone has linked to or bookmarked a page, you don't want to feed them a 404.

He can give a 301 redirect.