Underscore or Hyphen

[HMCOE]

I've heard a lot of conflicting views on this.

Some SEO gurus consult to use _ (underscore) whenever you need to use words like "for" "and" "to" when defining keywords in URL structure.

Others say to use - (hyphen) in everything

Others say not to use the connecting words (to, for, and) at all

What would you recommend?

[eli.boda]

I would recommend hyphens in all cases.

this video from matt cutts is from 2011 and from what i know still applies http://youtu.be/AQcSFsQyct8

[ThompsonPaul]

Hyphens are preferred for separating words, as the video Eliathah mentions shows.

In addition, there is no point in including "stop words" (prepositions, conjunctions like to, and, for etc) in your URLs. They provide no additional clues to the user or search engine what the URL is about, and just make it unnecessarily longer.

Paul

[HMCOE]

Do you have some proof/case studies for this comment?

"In addition, there is no point in including "stop words" (prepositions, conjunctions like to, and, for etc) in your URLs. They provide no additional clues to the user or search engine what the URL is about, and just make it unnecessarily longer."

[HMCOE]

The video is a year old... Call me "skeptical" that it's still valid. But definitely a good watch. Thanks!

[KevinBudzynski]

I think the key is to be consistent. If you use hyphens, always use hyphens and so on.

If you google this:

site:google.com inurl:and

You can clearly see that Google does include "and" in the url. Is it good or bad? No one but Google knows the answer to this...

[eli.boda]

i cant find anything more recent that says otherwise. i also know that most sites use hyphens rather than underscores, so what reason would google have to make underscores their preferred structure? i dont think using underscores will necessarily hurt you, but if you want to be safe, just run with the pack on this.

[HDI]

So, we all know that The big, huge, over-arching idea is that Google ranks sites based on what they believe is best for the end user.

With the video that Eliathah posted and taking into consideration which URL structure would be easier for a user, I think hyphens are a clear correct answer.

Hyphens are easier for users to type (b/c they remove the step of using the 'Shift' key), therefore they're more user-friendly, therefore they're more SEO friendly. No?