URL structure... more less... question

[tomaszjot]

Ok. Which version is better for SEO?

1. www.bluewidgets.com/Blue_Widgets

2. www.bluewidgets.com/Blue-Widgets

3. www.bluewidgets.com/Blue Widgets

Especially interested in option 3. Leaving the space between words has any sense? Or is it treated as a one word instead?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[cziffra]

None of the above. I would actually go for an all lowercase version of #2. I like the hyphens, but never use capital letters in URLs since they can be case sensitive depending on how your server is set up. It's just easier not having to remember which letters are capitalized and which aren't.

Here's a video with Matt Cutts talking about how Google treats hyphens vs. underscores:

YouTube - Should I use underscores or hyphens in URLs?

 

[-joe-]

Pretty sure you can't use spaces in urls, hyphens or underscores only.

 

[cziffra]

Pretty sure you can't use spaces in urls, hyphens or underscores only.

You can, but they will often be converted to '%20', which is the URL encoding for a space. It's better to avoid them.

 

[bauss]

hyphens and lowercase

 

[papajohn56]

Hyphens and lowercase. Underscore is considered as one word by search engines

 

[-Matt-]

Keep in mind spaces become %20 so the url would look like:
whatever.com/blue%20widgets

and +1 for lowercase with -

 

[imkazu]

#2 for me as well ... that is the default for wordpress's mod_rewrite as well

 

[tomaszjot]

Thanks everyone for great answers, helped me a lot!