For SEO you should use dashes instead of underscores in web site URLs.  There has been a lot of debate over this and Google has said it will start seeing underscores as spaces, but it’s just better and safer to go with dashes.  The results for underscores and dashes are always different and we know for sure they see dashes as spaces.

The best time dashes would be used is in file names.  Take our Chief Technology Officer services page, the page name is chief-technology-officer.  This is to let Google know that it is 3 words, not 1.  If our page name was chief_technology_officer then Google would consider that 1 word, potentially.

But what about your domain name?  The domain name can also benefit from this, but there is a time and a place for it.  I would not use dashes in your domain name unless you had to.  If your domain name is only used to be found in search results, then I would say it would be alright.  However if this is your main domain of your business I would not use dashes unless nothing else was available.

Tags: seo

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 8:15 am and is filed under Straight Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.