Google likes dashes not underscores

[David]

See this article (http://www.cmswire.com/archives/tips-tricks/optimizing-urls-for-google-000287.php) on www.cmswire.com (http://www.cmswire.com). Some advice on Google optimisation and interesting facts about the use of dashes and underscores in file and directory names.

[francis]

That's good to know. I'm not a fan of underscores (in fact I took them out of all the PDFs JB did over the weekend). I worry that inexperienced computer users will see an underscore in an underlined hyperlink and think there's nothing but a space. EG:

"my_file_name.html" when underlined just looks like "my file name.html".

Underscores aren't widely used by "normal" computer users, so people tend to be unaware of them. Dashes are far better.

[David]

Good point. Underscores are not normally used in general English and I know that many of my students have no idea what an underscore is or where to find it on the keyboard.

[rob]

See this article (http://www.cmswire.com/archives/tips-tricks/optimizing-urls-for-google-000287.php) on www.cmswire.com (http://www.cmswire.com). Some advice on Google optimisation and interesting facts about the use of dashes and underscores in file and directory names.

David - I don't suppose you have this article saved anywhere? Seems they have taken down that page.

[Tom]

I agree with Francis' point - but isn't it the case that an underscore is OK in DOS file-naming conventions and a hyphen is not? I know DOS is a gonner but it is not so long since came across a few places where DOS file-naming concentions still counted. I think the most recent were ArcGIS and WebCT.

[Trudi]

That was the case with the previous version of WebCT but dashes are fine with the current one. Persuading people to stick to any naming conventions is an ongoing challenge - I still occasionally find file names like
'Smith's presentation on int. marketing 17.01.07 .ppt' in use!

[David]

David - I don't suppose you have this article saved anywhere? Seems they have taken down that page.

Rob, I don't have the article saved but the gist of it was that you should use the underscore and hyphen wisely. Google considers the underscore character to a space so that, for example, the phrase first_class is interpreted as "first class", whereas the phrase first-class is interpreted as first-class (all one word). The difefrence is in the search term. The first one implied that the words "first" AND "class" will be used, the second that only the word "first-class" will be used. This is the current thinking and makes logical sense to me. You will find older articles (pre 2006) saying other things.

This is most important for file and folder names because Google now uses these as an added aid to confirm relevance. In the new CADTutor website, I've renamed all files and folders with this in mind so that the url for an AutoCAD tutorial on "direct distance entry" is:

www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/direct_distance_entry.php (http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/direct_distance_entry.php)

Since the phrase "Direct Distance Entry" also appears in the <title> and <h1> tags, I hope that anyone searching on that term will find my tutorial.

If you Google that phrase, you'll find that I am at the top spot but it's still showing the current page and not the new one. That's another problem...

See:

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=15968

[David]

:cry: :(

OK, forget everything I just typed above. I just ran some tests on Google with hyphens and underscores and it seems that I'm completely wrong.

If I search on "direct_distance_entry", I can find my new tutorial page but not with "direct distance entry" or "direct-distance-entry". The results for the second two searches are identical but the first is different. This means that Google considers the hyphen to be a space and the underscore to be a character. I think this means that I have just incorrectly named all the files on my site.

I just found the original article: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/tips-tricks/optimizing-urls-for-google-000287.php

:cry:

[Webnauts]

The employee of Google confirms that Google prefers dashes instead of underscores.
Read more: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

[David]

Good to get it from the horses-mouth. So-to-speak. :)