URL Structure ............?

Question

I am curious about the SEO when it comes to URL formating.

If you have a url like
Code:

/shoppingcarthero2.html

Is it better to format it like
Code:

/shopping-cart-hero-2.html

Are the '-' and/or '_' treated as spaces and search engines like google read it better or does it not matter at all?



Also is the number an issue or not?

Is it worth updating the entire sites url structure if this is the case?

Answer 1

No-one really knows how Google and other Search Engine algorithms work, but from my experience - and _ symbols don't effect search results. If you cant easily update your folder names through FTP - go for it, otherwise no worries. As long as your have good Meta data and page titles, you'll be just fine!

Answer 2

The second option is the better choice - /shopping-cart-hero-2.html.



Google interprets the "-" as a space; as a way to separate words. If you were to do a search using "shopping-cart-hero-2" or "shopping cart hero 2" your site would have an equal chance of being rendered in search results. In order to find "shopping_card_hero_2" you would have to use the keyword phrase "shopping_card_hero_2". Nobody does that. You'll never be found. Always use the "-" in place of the "_".

Answer 3

URL structure means we can change our url using url recreation because using this technique you can put your keywords in web pages urls & it helps you to get top 10 ranking quickly. url recreation technique.

Answer 4

I am not a seo expert, but what I have learned, in my experience it’s always good idea to format url and separates keywords using “-“.



Example: have a look at any yahoo or google news story url. They always use “-“ to separates keywords.