[uwebd] url naming

[Kathleen Walsh]

What is the consensus on using dashes in folder and file names to increase
SEO? My marketing friends are not keen on it because of how it looks in
ads and print materials, but my SEO expert says its the best standard for
optimization.

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[Tracy Axelson]

In theory this is good practice yes. If you have a folder for undergraduate admission, and you've names it "undergraduateadmission" or "undergraduate_admission" then "undergraduate-admission" is a better choice. However, you could also just call it "admissions" and I think you'd be better off. The dash is hard to type and I think just simplifying the language when possible is a better option. I don't want research-office when I could just say research. And we're finding that this rule actually makes the directory structure more confusing. Upon redesigning the admission site, our marketing team decided to change the directory from /admissions to /undergraduate-admissions. This caused a scramble to get redirects in place because our old admissions directory was linked to from countless places on the web that we can't control. Frankly, I doubt very much that high school juniors and seniors are searching the web with "undergraduate admissions" as their search terms. They're more likely searching words like college, admissions, application, apply, etc. Of course their search would bring them to undergraduate admissions content, why wouldn't it, because isn't the entire world about them?? One of these changes I do agree with was /financialaid. Using financial-aid does make sense there, since someone would absolutely search for "financial aid" in a search field. I really think you have to apply some logic to this before going willy-nilly applying this "rule."

And I agree that it looks bad in print. I'd think that ads and print materials should probably use more friendly shortcuts to content rather than the entire lengthy URL, no? Especially as shortcut URLs give the opportunity to track effectiveness of a particular print piece.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kathleen Walsh [mailto:kathlee...@utoledo.edu]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 10:03 AM
To: University and College Webmasters
Subject: [uwebd] url naming

What is the consensus on using dashes in folder and file names to increase SEO? My marketing friends are not keen on it because of how it looks in ads and print materials, but my SEO expert says its the best standard for optimization.

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[Smith, Brian J]

Hi,

Matt Cutts from Google recommends dashes instead of say underscores in URL names for SEO.

That being said, underscores make a URL easier to read. From my research a dash vs an underscore makes very little SEO difference, other factors are much more important - Page Titles, semantic tagging, ALT tags, etc...

URL naming not one of the more important SEO factors, but friendly URLs are a best practice - we are not Robots. We are friendly people who want you to come to our school, visit, go to a game, etc...

Cheers!

Brian Smith
Web Flunky
UAlbany

-----Original Message-----
From: Kathleen Walsh [mailto:kathlee...@utoledo.edu]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 10:03 AM
To: University and College Webmasters
Subject: [uwebd] url naming

What is the consensus on using dashes in folder and file names to increase SEO? My marketing friends are not keen on it because of how it looks in ads and print materials, but my SEO expert says its the best standard for optimization.

---

You are currently subscribed to uw...@umich.edu as: bsm...@albany.edu.

[Tracy Axelson]

>> other factors are much more important - Page Titles, semantic tagging, ALT tags, etc...

This!

You are currently subscribed to uw...@umich.edu as: taxe...@clarku.edu.

[David C Poteet]

Your SEO expert is right, it is better for optimization. However, it's not as important as the page title itself and the relevance of the actual content on the page.

David

On Jun 6, 2013, at 10:20 AM, Tracy Axelson <TAxe...@clarku.edu> wrote:

What is the consensus on using dashes in folder and file names to increase SEO? My marketing friends are not keen on it because of how it looks in ads and print materials, but my SEO expert says its the best standard for optimization.

David Poteet

NewCity

[Jarvis, Hugh]

Not to sound pedantic, it’s just standard usability and SEO best practice to hyphenate your directory and file names.  End of story.

 

Brian & Tracy, I couldn’t disagree with you more. Underscores are NOT easier to read.  Further, they are often lost on a page (where the URL is revealed and the link is underlined) or confusing to parse on a printed page.    Again, this is a usability standard.

 

But Tracy, I agree with you that working out more sensible, and readable shorter paths is very smart, and again a best practice.

 

Here’s a thought. If the concern about delivering pretty URLs on a printed piece is the issue (print….?!?), then you can always apply a URL shortener, or have your IT people map in a short URL redirect, or hey, here’s a thought, how about using modern technology like a QR code.  Do you really want people to have to read and then type in URL’s into a browser..?  (People don’t do that anyway – they search for keywords.)

 

Stepping off my podium now…

 

TGIF,

 

                Hugh

 

 

Hugh Jarvis (PhD, MLS)

Cybrarian, University Communications

330 Crofts Hall ~ University at Buffalo

Buffalo, NY USA  14260-7015

ph: 716- 645-4604  fax: 716-645-6969

email: hja...@buffalo.edu (preferred)

 

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[Aron Roberts]

This post from UCLA's Mike Takahashi summarizes the
legibility/usability argument:
http://www.meetup.com/ia-55/messages/39624772/

"If you're talking strictly about usability, a common issue is that
underscores might not be seen when reading links. Users might wonder
if it’s a space or an underscore, because links get underlined (unless
you use CSS to remove it). So from a usability perspective, hyphens
are clearer."

This article also (in part) addresses that same argument:
http://pixelposition.com/hyphens-underscores/

As well, there seems to be an overwhelming preponderance of arguments
that hyphens/dashes should be used as word separators in links, rather
than underscores, on the basis of search engine behavior and hence SEO
best practices. Among these:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/04/of-spaces-underscores-and-dashes.html
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/ (possibly Brian
Smith's reference?)
http://www.ecreativeim.com/blog/2011/03/seo-basics-hyphen-or-underscore-for-seo-urls/
http://themetaq.com/articles/seo-under-scrutiny-are-hyphens-or-underscores-better-word-separators

Interestingly, this article (and one of the comments that follows)
gives tantalizing hints that, back in 2007, Google looked into making
its behavior when encountering underscores in links equivalent to its
behavior around hyphens, but perhaps that never materialized?
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whitehat-seo-tips-for-bloggers/

Aron Roberts
Information Services and Technology
University of California, Berkeley

[Michael Bazeley]

Matt Cutts from Google explains why you should use hyphens here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQcSFsQyct8

Michael

-- 
Michael Bazeley
Director, Communications
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
www.law.berkeley.edu
510-643-8010