Web Site File Names

olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
50,124
779
126
I just had some employer Drupal training on updating our office web pages. In the past, this was done through a webmaster but the role is going to users in the offices.

The trainer said to use underscores in file names: IE my_web_page.html

I was looking for more info online and found a page that said not to use underscore. It suggested dashes: IE my-web-page.

Found another page that said to use underscore.

I've done a few pages in the past that didn't mean anything so I always just used a "run on": IE mywebpage.

I am trying to write up a list of approved naming conventions that we call can abide by for consistency.

What's the best format?

Thanks.
 

sourceninja

Diamond Member
Mar 8, 2005
8,805
65
91
This is a SEO question, I'm not sure how google ranks _ vs - currently, but in the past google did not realize _ was a word separator and ranked pages lower. So there is not a right answer here, there are 'better' answers based on modern SEO strategies.
 

olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
50,124
779
126
This is a SEO question, I'm not sure how google ranks _ vs - currently, but in the past google did not realize _ was a word separator and ranked pages lower. So there is not a right answer here, there are 'better' answers based on modern SEO strategies.
These pages are on an Intranet, so google rankings may not matter?
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
One minor point in favor of dash instead of underscore is that underscores disappear in underlined web links, so you can't tell them apart from spaces.
 

Lokesh Sharma

Junior Member
Mar 21, 2018
2
0
1
hey there,
The better way is my-web-page, infect his the best way because using this kind(my-web-page) of url makes the web-page more SEO friendly and the ranking of your site will increase by this.
Thank You.