Better to name a HTML file: Hyphen or Underscore?

[YesBrilliant]

According to your development experience, which one you think is better for the ranking of a site to name a HTML/PHP file: Hyphen or Underscore?

Let's consider just SEO, not type-ins, as users would not type long urls anyway.

For example:
www.DOMAIN.ext/keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.htm

or

www.DOMAIN.ext/keyword1_keyword2_keyword3.htm

Thanks or your input.

 

[Dan]

I think I remember hearing hyphen's were better, but I haven't seen anywhere that one is completely better than the other. It doesn't seem like there should be a real difference.

 

[RegisterRants]

Well, underscores can sometimes be mistaken for spaces, especially when underlines as a link

 

[Matthew.]

SEO wise i think they're pretty much equal. Something is telling me underscore is better but i have nothing to base that on so i stick with the are the same.

I personally prefer hyphens

 

[domaincollector]

Observation only

I have noticed that News.com.com.com or whatever they are called use + a lot in their URLs.

EXAMPLE: http://news.com.com/Survey+Chip+sal...ovember/2100-1006_3-6146539.html?tag=nefd.top

The other observation is that blogs generally have - in their urls.



I am NOT an expert.



Jeff

 

[DeViAnThans3]

Personally I use underscores, though, it doesn't really matter if you look to SEO.
It is a fact that underscores could be mistaken by spaces or so, in that view it's better to have hyphens.

 

[enlytend]

According to your development experience, which one you think is better for the ranking of a site to name a HTML/PHP file: Hyphen or Underscore?

Hyphens are almost always better than underscores.

Google parses hyphens as word seperators, but underscores are parsed as characters. This means that word1-word2 is seen as 2 words (word1 and word2), but word1_word2 is seen as ONE word (word1_word2).

This has been verified by Google engineer Matt Cutts on a number of occasions, his most recent reference on the web (that I could find in a quick search) in April 2006.

I have noticed that News.com.com.com or whatever they are called use + a lot in their URLs.

Plus signs are just spaces in a string which has been URL encoded ...

 

[Matthew.]

Hyphens are almost always better than underscores.

Google parses hyphens as word seperators, but underscores are parsed as characters. This means that word1-word2 is seen as 2 words (word1 and word2), but word1_word2 is seen as ONE word (word1_word2).

This has been verified by Google engineer Matt Cutts on a number of occasions, his most recent reference on the web (that I could find in a quick search) in April 2006.

Great info enlytend, Rep'd

 

[JFS]

if you search almost anything on google you will see even if the url is keyword1_keyword2.html it treats both as seperated words and not as one.
if you search for "flu shot" ( withou the "" ) you will have in the listing :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_vaccine
pediatrics.about.com/cs/immunizations/a/flu_shots.htm
www.kidshealth.org/parent/general/body/flu_vaccine.html
www.medicinenet.com/flu_vaccination/article.htm

if the two words separated by the underscore was treated as one those results shouldn't be listed.

 

[enlytend]

if you search for "flu shot" ( withou the "" ) you will have in the listing :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_vaccine

Yes, but take a closer look at the search results - reproduced here, highlighted as in the actual serps. To simplify, I limited the search to wikipedia (exact search phrase used - flu shot site:wikipedia.org )

Flu vaccine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Additionally, because mortality is high among infants who contract influenza, the household contacts and caregivers of infants should get a flu shot to ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_vaccine - 114k - Cached - Similar pages​

The individual words of the query (flu and shot) are highlighted in the search results, as expected. Now look at the next result:

Influenza pandemic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
No, it won't protect you against pandemic influenza. But flu shots can help you to stay healthy. Get a flu shot to help protect yourself from seasonal flu. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_pandemic - 116k - Cached - Similar pages​

Notice how the serps display the word flu highlighted within the word "Influenza" in the url - they're showing you one of your search terms even though its embedded in another word.

Here's an experiment - try these 2 queries in a Google search:

flu-vaccine site:wikipedia.org​

and then try

flu_vaccine site:wikipedia.org​

The first returns all results containing flu and vaccine in order and separated by one character.

However, the second query returns only the results with the literal "flu_vaccine"!

And even more interesting, notice how flu and vaccine are NOT highlighted in the URL:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/Avian_Flu_Vaccine​

in the results from the first query -

So, with all due respect, it looks to me like hyphen is still being interpreted as a separator and the underscore as a character in Google ...

 

[JFS]

hyphen is being interpreted as a separator if you insert it on the search query not on the results, that was what i meant.

 

[YesBrilliant]

Thank you very much to all of you who replyed so enthusiastically. I really appreciate and reppd.

I'll be using Hyphens as my choice.

Thanks again.

 

[Noobie]

I read hyphen somewhere .. so i use them ....