To dash or not to dash

[Dinghus]

I've seen many discussions about this topic but nothing really up to date. Currently what is the best practice for SEO, dashes in the URL or not?

Example: Selling green widgets so I choose a domain name with green widgets in it.

greenwidgets.com
green-widgtes.com

Which is better as far as SEO goes?

[perry321]

It really isn't known for a fact, but since it doesn't hurt, put it in anyway.

[Dinghus]

It is a good way to get the name you want too.

[SemAdvance]

Hi

It does matter in some ways.

I posted this here a few weeks ago

Keywords in directory and page names

Underscores are treated as whitespace.

Underscores are not preserved as literal text in URLs

Hyphens are.

Underscores have no use in the English language

Hyphens do

--->>>Reasons NOT To Use Hyphens!!!!!

Hyphens are logically applied text wrapping points.

If you choose to utilize URLs that use hyphen in the address, that URL can, and probably will, wrap if the address is sent by email to others.

Underscores will not.

Dashes are used in math, so searches with dashes in the equation give you another competitor.

Dashes are used in the context of search engine algorithms as negative operators. This means that searches including a dash prefix ("-keyword") will actually prevent that term from being listed in the result

Peace!

[crankydave]

Use dashes and not underscores when neccessary.

Dashes are considered (at this point) to be word separators by all SE's when it comes to parsing URL's. Underscores are not.

Recently, Matt Cutts announced that Google will be treating underscores in URL's as separators but to my knowledge, the others have not.

What matters, is how a URL is parsed.

Until (if) the other SE's jump onboard, it's still a better practice to use dashes and not underscores if you are going to use either.

SemAdvance...

You've been chirping your same message in multiple threads.

Give one example where a search for "keyword1 keyword2" returns a single result that uses an underscore.

Dave

[incrediblehelp]

Here is the link that has more info on Matt's discussion on the topic if interested.

[crankydave]

Dinghus...

It's a matter of whether or not you want to "tell" the SE's how to parse your URL. An example would be Untitled Document

Another example might be oureport.com

If the page is "OU Report" and you don't want the words "our" or "port" parsed out of the URL use the dash.

Dave

[WebKing]

If you can get the domain name without dash or underscore, then don't delay to get it register. But if you are getting right keywords with dash or underscore that's important too. Though, first preference goes to without having dash or underscore. ATB

[fernimac]

You should consider the pros and against of no dashes, dashes and underscores from two different perspectives: search engine optmization and usability. I think that from a usability point of view, it is better to get a domain with no underscores and no dashes at all. If your domain uses one of them, you will find yourself in the future always specifying whether it is a dash or an underscore. From a search engine positioning perspective, it is true that Matt Cutts used to reccomend dashes until lately when he said that Google no longer makes a difference between dashes and underscores.

Fernando Maciá

[incrediblehelp]

The argument from Dave and SEMA is moot from my perspective. I dont care either way. In the whole scope of all things SEO it means very little to me, so why waste time on it.

[scanmonkey]

Originally Posted by Dinghus

greenwidgets.com
green-widgtes.com

Which is better as far as SEO goes?

To protect yourself form dilution purchase both.

[janeth]

I'd buy the name for the user and not for the search engines.

[Ne0]

Originally Posted by scanmonkey

To protect yourself form dilution purchase both.

Well said

The dashes have helped in some cases, but then I've also seen it hinder SEO practices...

as scanmonkey said... get both 301 the other to the one you choose to use

.02

db