neilt
Joined: Aug 29, 2005
# Posts: 169
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-22 15:40
I've noticed on my site (see profile) that on some pages which contain a _ in the file name it is converted to both %5F. However if I replace the %5F with a _ and refresh the page it loads with a _.
This occurs in both IE and Firefox.
Any ideas why and will this affect my search engine ranking/indexing.
|
 |
g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-22 17:26
There's a warning here.
Never use spaces or underscores in filenames.
Use only hyphens or dots instead. It is less hassle.
|
|
neilt
Joined: Aug 29, 2005
# Posts: 169
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-22 22:57
Oh that is a problem. I've already indexed all my pages in Google with an _ based on previous dicussions.
What problems could I encounter if I use the _ ?
I've searched for a common keyword phrase and one of our competitor sites is listing top 5 when using _ on google.
|
|
g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-22 23:26
Google treats two_words as if it were twowords. You don't want that.
They treat two-words and two.words as if they were two words. That is good.
Spaces in URLs get changed to %20 which makes%20things%20very%20hard%20to%20read.
|
|
neilt
Joined: Aug 29, 2005
# Posts: 169
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-22 23:31
I've read on many forums that using either _ or - carries little weight in keyword density.
In your opinion, since my site is now set-up and linked, and currently being indexed, should I leave everything as it is.
I'm not too bothered whether people can read the URL, since they won't remember it anyway because it is too long.
My main concern is will my rankings be affected. I can't see that they will since I've searched for a common keyword phrase and one of our competitor sites is listing top 5 when using _ on google.
|
|
g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-22 23:47
If you have used spaces or underscores, then I would gradually migrate to hyphens or dots if you can.
At the very least use them on all new pages from now on.
|
|
neilt
Joined: Aug 29, 2005
# Posts: 169
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-23 10:44
Going back to my first question, why when clicking on some URLs are the _ displayed as %5F ? but on other URLs they are displayed correctly as _
|
|
g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-23 20:49
For those that are already shown as %5F I would change to dots or hyphens right away.
|
|
neilt
Joined: Aug 29, 2005
# Posts: 169
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-24 14:41
The site is still fairly new. Do you think we should scrap all the pages with _ and replace with -
|
|
g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-24 16:42
If you do that, then do it gradually, because if you change all of your page names at once then Google will think that you have a brand new site, and you will lose ranking.
Change the obvious problematical ones now, then work on the rest over the next few months.
|
|
neilt
Joined: Aug 29, 2005
# Posts: 169
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-25 12:45
I've realised why some URLs were being displayed as %5F. It was because I left off a trailing /.
Therefore at this current time, I don't think I will be converting my pages from _ to -
Thanks for the help.
|
|
g1smd
Staff
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10465
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-25 13:35
I can't believe that a trailing / could have anything to do with it at all.
|
|
neilt
Joined: Aug 29, 2005
# Posts: 169
|
Posted: 2006-Sep-25 13:39
I couldn't believe this either, but I tested on all my pages and it has fixed the problem.
|
|
Inbox
