Best URL for SEO

[sastro]

What is the best url for seo :

www.domain.com/it-is-the-url.html

www.domain.com/it_is_the_url.html

www.domain.com/it is the url.html (www.domain.com/it%20is%20the%20url.html)

www.domain.com/itistheurl.html

 

Thanks for help

 

[Axeia]

Dashes and underscores are treated equally by google since <insert some date I forgot here> and are generally considered the best solution so go with either of those.

 

I prefer underscores as the normal dash is sometimes used in words. (Though I haven't tested or research if searching for "some-word" would yield better results from a /some-word url than it would from a /some_word url.

[TheFilmGod]

A url for an online article would be better off like this:

 

http://www.domain.com/articles/2009/4/21/article-name-goes-here.php

[coalgames]

Representatives of Google have released information.

 

You should always aim for the first one but if you absolutely cant (changing old pages to new pages), just keep it as so. If you are making a new page, try to use the first one.

 

This is the order they would prefer is:

 

1. www.domain.com/it-is-the-url.html

2. www.domain.com/it_is_the_url.html

3. www.domain.com/itistheurl.html

[TheFilmGod]

Representatives of Google have released information.

 

You should always aim for the first one but if you absolutely cant (changing old pages to new pages), just keep it as so. If you are making a new page, try to use the first one.

 

This is the order they would prefer is:

 

1. www.domain.com/it-is-the-url.html

2. www.domain.com/it_is_the_url.html

3. www.domain.com/itistheurl.html

 

I would like to question your claims. Google has stated that "-" and "_" do not make a difference. AS a matter of fact, you don't need any spaces. Google finds and compares strings to other string. - You don't need physical breaks. The only url schema google would have a problem with is dynamic variables, as it can't index dynamic urls.

[semlabs]

I would go for:

 

www.domain.com/it-is-the-url.html

 

As far as I can tell Google treats - and _ differently. If you do a search for "hi_tek" and "hi-tek" you get different results.

 

Also, try Googeling the following:

 

site:wikipedia.org "hi_tek"

site:wikipedia.org "hi-tek"

 

On the one you don't get results.

 

To my knowledge - is equated by Google to be a space, whereas _ is just considered to be itself.

[the182guy]

use-this-way.html

 

It is the most common format and I would say it's better than this_way for SEO.

[TheFilmGod]

As far as I can tell Google treats - and _ differently. If you do a search for "hi_tek" and "hi-tek" you get different results.

 

Also, try Googeling the following:

 

site:wikipedia.org "hi_tek"

site:wikipedia.org "hi-tek"

 

This is because google doesn't "search" urls for relevance. Instead it uses keywords from the url as a way to double check legitimacy of the page and relevance of the webpage content as it pertains to that page. Google's search engine treats "-" as a character of in itself. The hyphen is used in many words, while the underscore is never used within a word. (You had it reversed).

[Adam]

The only url schema google would have a problem with is dynamic variables, as it can't index dynamic urls.

 

Beggin your pardon, but Google can read dynamic URLs.

 

 

[TheFilmGod]

The only url schema google would have a problem with is dynamic variables, as it can't index dynamic urls.

 

Beggin your pardon, but Google can read dynamic URLs.

 

 

 

Yes/no. Google can obviously read and index dynamic urls that have specific links to. However, google will not index dynamic pages when your website isn't very popular, and it would never be able to index more complex schema unless you make sitemap with a SPECIFIC link to each dynamic element.

[akanglil]

point 1,2 and 4 i think... good for seo

[SuperBlue]

I don't really think it makes a difference with dynamic urls, I've had my sites indexed pretty fast, regardless of using dynamic urls. They however didn't rank as well, as when using the title as a part of the url.

 

Google do currently, put more weight into urls with keywords. So using a url like This-is-the-title.html actually gives your site an unfair advantage, above those who use dynamic urls.

 

Either Underscores or dashes would be fine, don't know how Yahoo and Live sees the underscores though.

 

 

 

[Daniel0]

Either Underscores or dashes would be fine, don't know how Yahoo and Live sees the underscores though.

 

According to Matt Cutts (an engineer on the Google search team), only dashes are used as separators by Google and underscores aren't. That's not to say you should change from underscores to dashes if things are working fine for you though.

[SuperBlue]

Either Underscores or dashes would be fine, don't know how Yahoo and Live sees the underscores though.

 

According to Matt Cutts (an engineer on the Google search team), only dashes are used as separators by Google and underscores aren't. That's not to say you should change from underscores to dashes if things are working fine for you though.

 

Nope, thats from 2005. Matt Cutts spoke at WordCamp San Francisco 2007 conference saying that, Google will be going to treat underscores and dashes the same. Thats some time ago now.

[Daniel0]

[gevans]

Google do currently, put more weight into urls with keywords. So using a url like This-is-the-title.html actually gives your site an unfair advantage, above those who use dynamic urls.

 

I would hardly call that an unfair advantage, an advantage, or advencement yes, but not an unfair one. A tiny bit of planning at the start of your project can give you a dynamic site (dynamic URIs) using normal URIs.

 

Take Codeigniter the framework for example;

 

http://www.example.com/about/the-team

 

A simple htaccess file gets rid of the index.php file in the URI and gives you a fully dynamic site. The above will load the 'about' controller and run the 'the-team' method.

[Niku01]

I use www.domain.com/it-is-the-url.html

[ejaboneta]

Google do currently, put more weight into urls with keywords. So using a url like This-is-the-title.html actually gives your site an unfair advantage, above those who use dynamic urls.

 

I would hardly call that an unfair advantage, an advantage, or advencement yes, but not an unfair one. A tiny bit of planning at the start of your project can give you a dynamic site (dynamic URIs) using normal URIs.

 

Take Codeigniter the framework for example;

 

http://www.example.com/about/the-team

 

A simple htaccess file gets rid of the index.php file in the URI and gives you a fully dynamic site. The above will load the 'about' controller and run the 'the-team' method.

 

 

So would

http://www.example.com/article1

 

better than

http://www.example.com/article1.php

 

??

[Adam]

Yeah, think from a computer's point of view. If somebody searched for "article1", "article1" would be a closer match than "article1.php".

[ejaboneta]

Nope, thats from 2005. Matt Cutts spoke at WordCamp San Francisco 2007 conference saying that, Google will be going to treat underscores and dashes the same. Thats some time ago now.

 

Would it be safe to use underscores then? How about dots? I need a seperator in addition to dashes.

 

 

 

[Adam]

Yeah, think from a computer's point of view. If somebody searched for "article1", "article1" would be a closer match than "article1.php".

 

To add to that, although it may be a slightly better match, I highly doubt there's ever a situation where that small difference would win you a hit over someone else.

[Daniel0]

Nope, thats from 2005. Matt Cutts spoke at WordCamp San Francisco 2007 conference saying that, Google will be going to treat underscores and dashes the same. Thats some time ago now.

 

Would it be safe to use underscores then? How about dots? I need a seperator in addition to dashes.

 

Guess what? Separators were already addressed once in this excruciatingly long topic. A stunning two pages! How will I ever manage to work through all that text? And on top of that, having to watch a one minute long video, which was linked to, that also explains it!

[ejaboneta]

I've read the 2 pages and i was just a little confused. The conversation seemed to be going back and forth. And sorry, I didn't watch the video. I don't have working speakers connected.

[BestEast]

I think www.domain.com/it-is-the-url.html is  most liked by SEO

 

Also ,I need to give some suggestions about URL writing:

1.Make your URL as short as possible.

2.Limit parameter in URL.

3.Including keywords in URL.

4.Don’t change your URL easily.

 

 

[gevans]

1.Make your URL as short as possible.

This is the url for a page on a site I've just done. I've changed the domain name, just because...

 

www.example.com/our_services/fiduciary_services_for_private_clients

 

Now there's a page called 'Fiduciary Services for Private Clients' that come under the heading of 'Our Services'. I could easily have made this something like the following;

 

www.example.com/services.html

 

Now is shorter always better?

 

2.Limit parameter in URL.

 

Can you explain what you mean by this?

 

4.Don’t change your URL easily.

 

Did you mean, don't change your URL often?