Approved Word Separators in URLs

[Richline_Digital]

Hi There,

We are in the process of revamping our URL structure and my devs tell me they have a technical problem using a hyphen as a word separator. There's a whole lot of competing recommendations out there and at this point I'm just confused.

Does anyone have any idea what character would be next-best to the hyphen for separating words in a URL? Any reason to prefer one over another?

Some links I've found discussing the topic:

• This page says that "__Google has confirmed that the point (.), the comma (,) and the hyphen (-) are valid word separators in URL’s.": http://www.internetofficer.com/seo/google-word-separator/
• This page suggests the plus (+) symbol would be best: http://labs.phurix.net/posts/word-separators-in-urls
• This guy says he's tested and there's a whole bunch of symbols that will work as word separators: http://www.webproguide.com/articles/Symbols-as-word-separators-a-look-inside-the-search-engine-logic/

I'm leaning towards the tilde (~) or the plus (+) sign. Usage would be like so: http://www.domain.com/shop/sterling~silver OR /shop/sterling+silver etc...

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Unity]

I haven't come across this issue before so can't comment on which alternative but I'd be looking for Google's best practice and select one from there (from Google dev website or perhaps Matt Cutts has covered this in a video).

It seems interesting that your dev team could use an alternative like ~ or + but not (-) a hyphen. Maybe push back for the use of a hyphen!

[Richline_Digital]

Thanks, Davinia. Didn't want to introduce too much complexity to the problem but the issue is that our devs already have a series of rules in place where the hyphen carries special meaning, so I'm gonna have to work under those constraints...

[Unity]

The joys.... good luck!

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hello jonaz,

Here's the short answer: dashes are best.

Next best might be underscores.

For the long answer, check this post out: http://www.seomoz.org/q/hyphens-v...

Hope this helps!

[Richline_Digital]

Hey George,

Problem is that I can't use hyphens (-) and need an alternative... Unless you mean dashes like mdash and ndash? (i.e. – and —) Wasn't sure if those characters were okay for URLs and whether they are recognized as separators by google...

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hi jonaz, I think I was editing my post when you were replying. Dashes are best, yes. I'd say underscores would be second-best. If your developers can't work with dashes, then my suggestion would be to use underscores.

Using a plus sign (+) isn't bad. The plus sign represents a space character I believe.

[Richline_Digital]

Hi All,

Anyone got a definitive answer on this one? I wish I could use dashes but can't. Any more advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hey Jonaz, use the plus (+) sign. I think it's your best bet.