Which URL Structure is best for New Website?

[jemindesai]

Hello All,

I have one client and he want to develop his website but the he want the URL structure for his website page like below:

http://www.example.com/category/xxproduct.html

But I have suggest him below URL Structure

http://www.example.com/category/xx-product.html

So Can you people please suggest me that from above which URL structure is better from SEO side as well as from Visual side..?

Is using - is better to separate the words in URL?

[TomRayner]

Hi Jemin

SEO wise - there's no difference between the two.  Both would include the keyword (presuming that's what xx is) in the URL - which has a small benefit in SEO - and so separating it by a dash at that stage of the URL wont make a difference.

Visually, I would go with the second structure - with the dash.  It makes the URL read better for me and you'll notice that a lot of websites, SEOMoz included, use dashes to separate words in their URLs.

I think you'll be fine if you choose this option.

[irvingw]

better if you don't need the category and if the category is a keyword to put it in the filename

ok:    www.brandname.com/notebooks/blue-binder.html

better: www.brandname.com/blue-binder-notebooks.html

[Harbor_Compliance]

I would agree with Tom.  I would imagine dashes would be better from an SEO side BECAUSE it is better from the user experience side, namely it is easier to read.  Think about what will read best when someone is looking at the search results.