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I am optimizing a site which uses underscores rather than hyphens as word separators (such_as_this.php vs. such-as-this.php). Most of these pages have been around since 2007, and I am hesitant to just redirect to a new page because I am worried it will cause the rankings to slip.

Would you recommend changing the file names to be in hyphenated format and place 301 redirects on the pages with underscores, or stick with the existing pages? Is there anything else that would work better?

Thanks!

We recently had a client who own multiple brands switch from having multiple urls to having a single domain with multiple sub domains. I've posted an example below to better explain.

My question is the original url is still functional, so there are two urls with identical content, yet I haven't been getting a duplicate content error. Also, would a rel canonical link be beneficial in this case since the duplicate content is on two separate domains?

My thoughts were to put a 301 redirect on the original pages so they permanently forward to the new sub-domain format. Is this the best course of action? If not, what would you recommend?

Example:

Original URLs
www.example1.com
www.example2.com
www.example3.com
www.parentcompany.com

New URLs
example1.parentcompany.com
example2.parentcompany.com
example3.parentcompany.com
www.parentcompany.com

Let me know if this I need to clarify anything in better detail.
Thanks in advance!

I am optimizing a site which uses underscores rather than hyphens as word separators (such_as_this.php vs. such-as-this.php). Most of these pages have been around since 2007, and I am hesitant to just redirect to a new page because I am worried it will cause the rankings to slip.

Would you recommend changing the file names to be in hyphenated format and place 301 redirects on the pages with underscores, or stick with the existing pages? Is there anything else that would work better?

Thanks!