Underscore or hyphen?

[TGITC]

OK gang,
This is just something going round my head, so I will try and explain what I mean as best I can,
Then hopefully get some feedback, before coming back tomorrow and asking myself what the hell I am on about LOL

lets say for example you have a site called analsex.com
You are organising directories and wish to feature a girl, called Jen Smith.

So would the best directory structure read:
analsex.com/anal-girls/anal-pics/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/jen-smith/index.html

OR

analsex.com/anal_girls/anal_pics/jen_smith_anal_pics_gallery/jen_smith/index.html

OR

analsex.com/analgirls/analpics/jensmithanalpicsgallery/jensmith/index.html

Which of the above would bring the best chance of spider recognition...
I doubt it would be the third

But would it be the 1st 'Hyphen'
or The second 'Underscore' ???

Or am I just talking a pile of crap and all of the above is irrelevant ???
Answers on a postcard please :)

[Tigger]

according to mr spin himself G prefers to see Hyphens although underscores do work just as well.

I use hyphens although I would try to make your page names less spammy as that could get the attention of someone and the last thing anyone wants no matter if they have a clean site or not is someone looking over it and I would go

analsex.com/anal-girls/jen-smith-pics-gallery/jen-smith/index.html

and as we know MSN loves loaded page names and I think that would keep both G & MSN happy

[Jel]

analsex.com/anal-girls/anal-pics/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/jen-smith/index.html

Why would you do that and not:

analsex.com/anal-girls/anal-pics/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/index.html

Unless you have an /anal-movies directory also, I'd drop the /anal-pics folder. In fact unless you have an /anal-guys directory, I'd go with

analsex.com/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/index.html

or stick it on the root and have

analsex.com/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery.html and link from the root to it,
with any images used called from analsex.com/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/ (for 'tidiness').

The more directories, the less 'important' they are (allegedly, depending on who you read/believe) meant to be.

As with most SEO discussions, it's all pretty much speculation though, and it really is seeing what works best for you by testing.

[Geezer]

I far as I know SE's don't see hyphens so anal-sex would be seen as anal sex, so I would go for hyphens and always do, plus I don't like underscore.

[Tigger]

its not a case of whether they see them or not more a fact that it breaks the page name into keywords rather than just one jumble of letters, in the same way a full stop would do.

I've seen many webmasters using anal.sex to getting the same result as underscores or hyphens

[Geezer]

its not a case of whether they see them or not more a fact that it breaks the page name into keywords rather than just one jumble of letters, in the same way a full stop would do.

I've seen many webmasters using anal.sex to getting the same result as underscores or hyphens

Thats what I said :)

[Tigger]

in that case I agree :cheer:

[TGITC]

OK, thanks then.
Hyphens it is from now on... :)

[TGITC]

Please allow me to jump back into the thread and ask a question...
This is specifically aimed at Jel, but naturally, comments from all are welcome.

Aside from the 'its all speculation angle' (Which I fully understand) Im interested in what was said about 'The more directories from the root... The less important it is...

Well without taking the piss and doing some 20 folder long exercise in seeing how many different ways you can fit 'anal sex' into your folders...

Jel said
"Why would you do that and not:

analsex.com/anal-girls/anal-pics/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/index.html

Unless you have an /anal-movies directory also, I'd drop the /anal-pics folder. In fact unless you have an /anal-guys directory, I'd go with

analsex.com/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/index.html"

Well aside from taking the pis, as I described above, surely the example of
analsex.com/anal-girls/anal-pics/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/index.html
contains more key words to help the spiders???

Now allow that the actual page itself, that contains 'miss smiths' amazing pics, also contains fresh original content, with plenty of anal keywords etc...

Would that be better value than
analsex.com/jen-smith-anal-pics-gallery/index.html

Simply because it contains more keywords etc ???

ALL OPINIONS WELCOME LOL

[Tigger]

contains more key words to help the spiders???


true but have you not heard off over optimising? your page names are way to keyword loaded/spammy and whilst MSN will probably love it if your trying to get traffic from G the only thing these pages will do is make G run in the other direction

If I was working this I would keep the main keyword which I presume is "anal" to being use twice within the page name other I think you are going to have problems

over to you Jel :oldman:

[nekrom]

One way to look at it is se's prefer natual looking links/pages. So I would go root/whatever.html like Jel said above or at least minimal foldering.

-N

[Jel]

Like I said, I'm far from an expert on SEO, but I prefer to keep directories to a minimum as I *personally* think that helps better than stuffing a url with keywords. I think (read: guess) that's why blogs seem to do well - everything on the root, for the most part.

There are plenty of pages/sites that come up top in the SERPS without the search term appearing anywhere in the url on Google, and let's face it, as much as we like yahoo/msn traffic, google traffic is what we aim for.

[Tigger]

exactly do a search on G for anal pics and hardly any of the top sites have that within the page name - when optimising for G its about doing it gently rather than hitting it with a sledge hammer or you could just fuck G off and hit for MSN

[TGITC]

OK thanks...
The actual 'analsex' bit was just as an example.
The real keyword is 'Squirt' so the directories actually contain squirting-pics / girlie-squirters / squirting-pornstars / female-sex-juices / etc etc...

Its not all squirt-this/squirt-that/squirt-somethingelse/ and i am looking at t least a small set of directorys with which to display these different 'squirt terms' to the spiders...

But as Jel says regarding blogs getting the 5 star treatment from G... I have to agree...

Thanks again too all :)

[TGITC]

OK thanks...
The actual 'analsex' bit was just as an example.
The real keyword is 'Squirt' so the directories actually contain squirting-pics / girlie-squirters / squirting-pornstars / female-sex-juices / etc etc...

Its not all squirt-this/squirt-that/squirt-somethingelse/ and i am looking at t least a small set of directorys with which to display these different 'squirt terms' to the spiders...

But as Jel says regarding blogs getting the 5 star treatment from G... I have to agree...

Thanks again too all :)
Yeah theres really no logic to it is there ?
For example, im numbers 3 and 4 in G for the term 'squirting ladies' but thats not really a term that I have 'featured' either on the pages or in the directorys... Mad world LOL

[Tigger]

at a guess within either the nav or links pointing to the site you are useing that term - its links that power G not content