URL extensions naming
-
I have always wrote URL extensions as www.mysite.com/two_words.html .... when I need to separate two words, I use _ as the separator ...
I am a first time SEO Moz user ... I
While looking around the tools on SEO Moz, I happened to stumble across the on-page analysis.
A great tool indeed, rather worryingly though, one issue it flagged to me was my URL extension
"Characters which are less commonly used in URLs may cause problems with accessibility, interpretation and ranking in search engines. It is considered a best practice to stick to standard URL structures to avoid potential problems."
Can someone advice me if this really is a problem, its just not this project, its tons of sites I have already developed that I am also worried about ...
I always write file extensions with more than one word using _ to separate the words.
How should I write the extension, I am almost embarrassed to ask this question ...
Surely, even Google's algorithms are not smart enough to decipher two words without some some sort of spacing ....
Regards
J
-
Thanks ....
Hmmm, I learn something new everyday .... Well I learn lots, but this one in particular will inevitably lead me to changing very old habits
-
Adam is correct,
When I was hired at my company 3 years ago everything was underscores, so I had to evaluate if renaming would be beneficial. At the time I came across this video from Matt Cutts
What I took away from this is the following, which I use today as general guidelines.
If the page already exist and is performing well
I leave it as itIf the page already exist but isn't performing well and only has 2 keywords separated
Content Update, and re-evaluate a month of so laterIf the page already exist isn't performing well and is separating 3 or more keywords with underscores (red_delicious_apples.html) Content update, and switch to dashes and 301 direct old page to new page
If the page is a new page
Just use dashesThat is my general strategy for handling pages. There are other things to consider such as site uniformity, some owners/marketing directors don't like their sites urls to be mixed, and some sites which use CMS systems may have to go for an all or none approach.
I hope that helps.
-
Generally it is considered best practice to separate words using a hyphen (-) rather than an underscore (_) as Google recognises hyphens as spaces. It also looks much neater using hyphens in urls as opposed to underscores which is why I advise using hyphens instead.
However, it doesn't really make a huge difference as Google can generally recognise the keywords without the use of hyphens. There are of course exceptions to this. The most famous example of this being www.expertsexchange.com. I'm sure you can see the issues with this domain.
Hope this helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will page be marked as 404 if you replace country specific letters from url?
What I'm reffering to is replacement of Polish characters from i.e "ł" to "l" or "ę" to "e". I believe it relates same way as other similar Slavic languages.
On-Page Optimization | | Optimal_Strategies0 -
Using the Same Word in Every URL
Just looking to get some opinions on this. Some coupon sites use "coupon" in all of their URLs - this is a practice I would avoid, as to me it is a little spammy. For example:
On-Page Optimization | | vanessakohl
.com/amazon-coupons/
.com/ebay-coupons/
.com/walmart-coupons/
... and so on for thousands of other brands. I don't think this is necessary, as Google will understand from the content, backlinks and the domain name (including the word "coupon") that brand pages are coupon-focused. Any other thoughts on this?0 -
Product names are defacto identical - How can I modify Title?
Hi! Our site http://www.metecoparts.gr/ help our customers search our inventory of cars for used parts. The way the titles of product pages are structured is: Car Parts – Make Model Year – Brand Name. So for instance this page http://www.metecoparts.gr/car/4074-alfa-romeo-156-1997 have the title "Car Parts Alfa Romeo 156 1997 – Meteco SA" (I have translated Greek words to English) So as you can imagine we end up with a bunch of duplicate titles pages. I’m trying to diversify the titles but the problem is that there aren’t many product identifiers other than body configuration, car color, fuel, engine capacity and engine code. But only color and year of production is partly unique as most Alfa Romeo 156 are 4 door saloons, with 1600cc petrol engine. The only thing that is unique for every product page is the page ID. So should I use it in the page title? Its the only unique identificator but on ther other hand it has no use for our customers. Or is there any other way of having unique titles that I am missing? Please note that in our industry on-page optimization is crucial since there is no social sharing and much link building (who wants to share an old car that is being sold for parts?) Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | Johnlock10 -
Googlebot found an extremely high number of URLs on your site:
Website: www.gobol.in Although I have no indexed my search pages by adding /catalogsearch in robots.txt, still we are getting same error again and again Here's a list of sample URLs with potential problems. http://www.gobol.in/catalogsearch/result/index/?category=&mobile_feature=4575_4578&q=panasonic+NR-BU303LH1H+REFRIGERATOR+296+L+GREY&special_price=32%2C456&x=0&y=0 http://www.gobol.in/mobile-and-accessories/mobiles-and-brands.html?manufacturer=4753_3355_455_4435_4720_3407_2412_4728_4784_4790_2010_4789_4376_2469&operating_system_mobile=4612 Please help
On-Page Optimization | | Obbserv0 -
Do parameters in a URL make a difference from an SEO point of view
We us a number of different parameters in a number of our URLs to track how the user has navigated to the page. So for example we will have a page www.example.com/product/?banner to show that the user has navigated to the page from the banner as opposed to www.example.com/product/?footer to show that the user has navigated to the page from the footer. Do search engines treat these pages as the same page or different pages? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | cbarron0 -
How to separate your - keywords - and | Brand name in the Title Tag
I have traditionally used hyphens (-) and vertical bars (|) to separate out keywords/brands in title tags. A client has asked if other characters will work such as tilde (~), apersat (@), forward slash (/) etc. Are there any special characters we should steer clear of?
On-Page Optimization | | Switch_Digital0 -
Replacing website, same URL, lose ranking
We had to do a rush job for a client and get a website up very quickly. We had to just replace the existing files on the server, but URL stayed the same. Now "teeth whitening glasgow" which they were number #1 for isn't coming up. Know there is still some on page work to be done - but the link profile should still remain the same? Just looking for some advice to get back to where they were - should we do a website change of address or just verify the site in Webmaster and get all the on page done? Thanks, Laura
On-Page Optimization | | lauratagdigital0 -
Url question for seo
Would it be beneficial to use url that is a match for my keyword to help with seo, then have my currently url forward to that one so I don't have to change any marketing materials? I was one of the feedback that I got when doing the on page keyword optimization tool on seo moz. Thanks J
On-Page Optimization | | fertilityhealth0