Simple question when naming pages?

[Adz]

I'm not sure if this has been asked and answered before but,
Which is the best way to name a page:

1. Page-Name.php
or
2. Page_Name.php

or do both ways give you the same result?

thanks.

[marshall_26]

- is interpreted as space, _ is not from what I hear

not 100% sure though

[jvuonger]

I've been wondering the same question.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

"With underscores, Google’s programmer roots are showing. Lots of computer programming languages have stuff like _MAXINT, which may be different than MAXINT. So if you have a url like word1_word2, Google will only return that page if the user searches for word1_word2 (which almost never happens). If you have a url like word1-word2, that page can be returned for the searches word1, word2, and even “word1 word2″"

[applebooty]

I think they both take you to the same place... I think!
I think if you made my-page.php, you could access it from my_page.php, but again, I'm not sure.

[Andrew2]

It actually depends..

I have a script that refers to _ as a space.
While - is a mid section division or whatever it is in the grammar world like anti-christ or pro-active or something.

Besides that, - are alot easier to type but SEO wise there shouldn't be a difference :D

[Adz]

Oh right, cool.
Good job my site is very new!
gonna change a few things from a underscore to DASHES!

Thanks for your input guys and gurls.

[geg2]

Matt Cutts from Google has stated in more than one blog post that dashes are the way to go for SEO, as opposed to underscores.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whitehat-seo-tips-for-bloggers/


It actually depends..

I have a script that refers to _ as a space.
While - is a mid section division or whatever it is in the grammar world like anti-christ or pro-active or something.

Besides that, - are alot easier to type but SEO wise there shouldn't be a difference :D

[jvuonger]

If your URL's are already indexed on search engines for the ones with underscores. Make sure do a 301-direct from the underscores to the dashes. This will mitigate some of the changes in SERPs and not get you punished. Just a tip.

[Adz]

If your URL's are already indexed on search engines for the ones with underscores. Make sure do a 301-direct from the underscores to the dashes. This will mitigate some of the changes in SERPs and not get you punished. Just a tip.

Thanks for the advice but my pages were created today so they wont of been indexed.
good tip though :)

[Benahue]

I remember reading Cutts claiming that the algo was becoming so advanced that it didn't really matter anymore. That pagename.com was viewed the same now as page-name.com. No one really believed that, but that's what he said. Make sure your pages all have different titles as well.

[Adz]

I remember reading Cutts claiming that the algo was becoming so advanced that it didn't really matter anymore. That pagename.com was viewed the same now as page-name.com. No one really believed that, but that's what he said. Make sure your pages all have different titles as well.

Yeah all my pages will have different titles :)


<off-topic>
The person who's hosting my new site, she accidentally deleted adz-graphix.net and that had a test folder with the new layout and coding for my new site,
i'm waiting for site5.com to reply back to her to try and get my files back
anyone know if site5.com can recover your files if their deleted?
</off-topic>

[Connections]

I all ways use "-"

never "_"

works fine for me.

[misterproline]

Choice #1.

[mrbrantley]

Im positive, as of Feb this year, that the "-" gave the keyword value in the URL where as "_" ignored it. Im sure the algo is changing around as time goes on...but why fix something thats not broken. I stick with - .

[DavidR]

I think they both take you to the same place... I think!
I think if you made my-page.php, you could access it from my_page.php, but again, I'm not sure.

Our survey says: EHHERRRRR.


X

[omen]

I think they both take you to the same place... I think!
I think if you made my-page.php, you could access it from my_page.php, but again, I'm not sure.

Correct!

So it doesn't matter which one you use.

I think!

[SamOwen]

Hyphens are better SEO-wise.

[mountlaurel]

Hyphens are better SEO-wise.
please use "-" .. for me its SE friendly though i never use underscore..

[blinger]

If your URL's are already indexed on search engines for the ones with underscores. Make sure do a 301-direct from the underscores to the dashes. This will mitigate some of the changes in SERPs and not get you punished. Just a tip.


----just saw this post... i'm a little confused...sorry for butting in..bec. I was asking my friends about this as well. Does it mean that if I change most of my URLs on my site, it might be penalized? We're renaming our URLs.

[socialreseller]

For a while I used to see a lot of sites using underscores, but now everyone is using dashes. I'd use dashes if I was you.

[JessicaCali0331]

I"ve never figured this one out so I have never used pages like that. I just run my words together. mypage.php instead of my_page.php or my-page.php.. Maybe I'm just wierd like that lol..

[Enigmacsg]

Same here I put all the words together when naming my pages. Looks neater also.

[n3o]

i'll go with -

[Azrail]

TY Geg2 that was really helpful. I always used underscores. That's going to change apparently.