Thread: What are your thoughts on hyphens vs. underscores in URLs?

What are your thoughts on hyphens vs. underscores in URLs?

Generally hyphens are treated as spaces(you want to use them), underscores are treated as they are not there if that make sense...

If you use an underscore and the name is underlined the underline hides the underscore so it can be confusing for visitors. The traditional way of presenting a link is blue font with an underline and many editing softwares default to this display.

Both hyphen and underscore are recognized by Google but the main thing is use hyphen in the S E O URL's so that it can be considered as a word separator while the underscore won't act like that in fact it can be used as a word joiner. Don't use any space or any underscore in the URL'S.

i think hyphen is potential for url.

according to my opinion, | - | is the best way to optimize the url according to sEO point of view.

I think its a misconception that hyphen is better than underscore to get better seo; it depends on your choice and or need, if you look at wikipedia.org, its link structure is based on underscore.

i always prefer hyphen (-) for url.

We can observe underscore in Wikipedia, image URLs and in many shopping sites URL structure.
Hyphen is very much s e o friendly. WordPress URLs will be in Hyphens only.
Both are considered by major search engines and we can see different math operators like equal, plus symbols in shopping sites URLs.

hyphen is partly made ​​up of URL structure , I think it is very useful for seo

I wouldn't over-think the distinction between hyphen and underscore as far as SEO is concerned. It wouldn't help or hurt your ranking if you use one over the other. However, I would recommend using hyphens as it is the standard among web developers and web masters.

Underscores in URL are not recommended.
Hyphens in URL are recommended and it is user friendly.