URL formatting tips for search engine optimization?

Question

I am looking for url encoding tips for SEO compliant site.

I have a list of variables I need!

hypen = used to split locations, Leeds-UK-England
space = underscore for where spaces occur
hypen = plus sign used in some british locations (stafford-upon-avon)
forward slash = exclamation used in house for names of things.

Are the ones chosen bad or good? Are there any better ones, I'm pretty sure I need all the data, in order to decode the url's properly.

My "SEO" gave me a list of things which are bad, but not good. I've searched these and google seems to give the same type of results.

Cheers, Sarkie

Answer 1

Google used not to recognise underscores as word separators - see this article from 2005. This has entered into received wisdom and most of the 'experts' and articles you will find on SEO will still be recommending this.

However, last year this changed: underscores are now recognised as word separators so it opens things up for URL design. This now allows using dashes as dashes and underscores as spaces which some consider more natural. I've not found many people who have caught up with this, including SEO consultants I deal with professionally.

As to a good system for your use case, I would recommend asking around some non technical people (colleagues, friends, family, etc) to see what they like.

Answer 2

Hyphens for spaces is the usual and preferred method.