what does the search engine prefer now Dash or Underscore in a url

Question

hi, what does the search engine prefer now Dash or Underscore in a url.

http://website.com/dash-underscore http://website.com/dash_underscore

thanks

Answer 1

The last time I had to look into search engine preference, it was that the dash had a slightly higher precedence than the underscore.

Matt Cutts seems to agree: Dashes vs. underscores

Answer 2

A lot of the blog sites nowadays build URL slugs using dashes as opposed to underscores as it is a lot easier to read so I wouldn't be surprised if search engines score dashes higher on the results than underscores.

Answer 3

Search engines tend to treat them differently. Google likes to treat two words joined by an underscore as a single word, but dashes are considered to be seperating puntuation. Try it out yourself!

I tried search for search_engine and search-engine. The first gave me pages and urls with that exact phrase, the second was a more general search, treating the dash - like a space.

Answer 4

Use hyphens.

I have asked several SEO consultants and they always say to use hyphens in URLs for separate words. That seems in line with practices on most commons sites I've looked at.