When you get down to it, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is as much an art as it is a science. From the quality of your writing to the history of your domain’s data, each little aspect of your website factors into whether your website is deserving of a hotspot on page 1 as one of the top 10 best choices for a particular keyword.
It’s understandable how we got here of course, with search engines thriving off of trustworthiness and there being more than 50 billion web pages for their algorithms to select from. To put it simply, it’s in Google or Bing’s best interests to be picky about who they’re showcasing to their users. So, the onus is on you to ensure that you’re meeting their qualifications for succeeding on the SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Pages).
This is where URLs come into the picture. Your URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the key way in which browsers locate and access works published on the internet. So, if you’re looking for ways to improve your SEO, then it’s a good idea to start at the source, and that means finding a structure that is going to get you the best results.
Let’s look at the ways your URL impacts your SEO, and whether you should be using dashes or underscores if you want to hit the top spot.
The Role of URLs in SEO
Whilst it may seem a rather arbitrary choice, the way in which you write your URL can provide a significant amount of information to a user or an algorithm. In other words, if you want to get as many people to your website as possible, then a well-structured URL is an amazing starting point. Some ways in which your URLs can impact your growth include:
Improving CTR (Click-Through Rates)
A well-structured URL is a URL that looks like it can be trusted. If a user has a choice between a clear, well-designed URL and one that looks like a jumble of letters, most likely they’re going to go with the former.
Improving Trust/Authority
Having your URL clearly outline what you are going to be providing on the page shows the level of care, thought, and consideration that has been put into its creation. Therefore, from a user’s perspective, this will be a good, if subtle, starting sign that the information they are going to receive from a page is worth their time.
Improving Clarity For Search Engines
A search engine’s first hurdle in ranking a webpage is understanding what that page is about. A well-structured URL helps search engines like Google recognise what you are trying to provide with your page, and what searches would be relevant for it.
Understanding URL Punctuation Etiquette
Now that we understand what a URL does for your SEO, we can now look into the elements from which a URL is structured. After all, to say whether a dash or underscore in a URL is better for SEO is to understand the role that each element may have.
The Hyphen, or “Dash”
A hyphen (-) is a punctuation mark that is primarily used to combine words (eg. family-friendly), or in some cases, separate two disparate parts of a compound word (eg. single-mindedness).
The En Dash Vs the Em Dash
The En Dash (–) is a longer hyphen generally used to show a range of something, whilst the Em Dash (—) is more commonly used for providing a parenthetical or an aside in a sentence.
For Example:
En Dash: “They were active between the years 1989–1994.”
Em Dash: “They were active—though not necessarily functional—from the year 1989.”
The Underscore
The underscore is an interesting piece of punctuation, as it is mostly a mark of necessity, indicating spaces between words in contexts where spaces are not applicable. For example, in an email address, one may want to separate all their words, but they can’t just have spaces there, so they’ll use underscores. For example: My_Chemical_Romance_Fan_99@gmail would be a viable use of underscores to replace the standard spacing in a case where spacing was not available.
So, Which is Favoured For SEO? URL Hyphens or Underscores?
Unlike many things in SEO, there is actually a relatively clear-cut answer to this question: Hyphens.
There are several benefits to hyphens over underscores when it comes to a URL, such as legibility, but the main difference comes down to the function of each separating symbol. Hyphens are universally recognised as word separators, which is not always the case for underscores, which are used in various roles, such as filters.
In practice, it has been found that using non-standard symbols (not using hyphens) in URLs can confuse search crawlers, leading to lower ranking potential overall for a very simple issue.
Why Hyphens Are Better For Users
Your URL benefits from being as simple and legible as possible, and having consistency in URL punctuation helps significantly with this. After all, what is easier for the human brain to recall:
- dash-or-underscore-url
- dash_or-underscore_url
By having consistency, and one chosen form of punctuation that is universally recognised, it makes everything easier for users, which is the main end goal of search engines at the end of the day. Additionally, there are cases in which a hyphen would be used naturally in a word, whereas in standard language, the underscore is far less likely to come up naturally.
Little things have a habit of building up with SEO, and if you keep paying attention to the signs Google is giving you, you’ll start to see the growth that you’re looking for.
Looking For Ways to Improve Your SEO?
For those who are trying to improve their presence in the digital space, why not work with the professionals? At WebOracle, we’ve worked with businesses across Australia, helping them grow their presence and expand their audiences through search engine optimisation and full-service web design and development. Contact us today to learn more.
