The Other Search Engines

**dems** · 08-31-2004, 10:52 PM

hi everyone... whats the offficial word on SEO and using a space in the url?

currently i'm using mod_rewrite to put in "-"'s and "_"'s and have added another rule that would allow me to use a space. I was wondering if there is any benefit to doing so or if i should just leave it as is.

if there is a benefit, would i submit pages with just the space in between my mod_rewrite values, or do i need to put in the %20 value in place of the blank space?

btw... i dreamed this up after noticing that Lyrics websites use mod_rewrite and have spaces inbetween thier values in the rule... for example....
somelyricssite.com/Some Artist Name/Some Song Title.html
which (as ya'll know) shows up in the url as....
somelyricssite.com/Some%20Artist%20Name/Some%20Song%20Title.html
am i making any sense?

thanks for the help!
dems

**junjun** · 09-01-2004, 07:55 PM

I *think* (this is my current policy, and I know I do it for a reason, just can't remember the source) that Google will recognize the different words in a url when they are seperated by a dash(-). It will consider underscore (_) as part of the word. Ergo it would read "red-widgets" as 2 seperate words "red widges", and "red_widgets" as one word.

**DevelopedWeb** · 09-01-2004, 10:33 PM

Google's algorithm is actually very intelligent--it automatically breaks down any given URL, even those that are just a single unbroken string, and parses it into seperate words. In fact, in can recognize "catshop.com" (random example, I know) as both "Cat Shop" and "Cats Hop".

Visit Whois to get the automatic breakdown of your domain name. (My domain, DevelopedWeb.com, shows up under the "wildcard search" as both 'developedweb' and 'developed web'.

Spaces won't help your site get indexed better. Do they hurt? I'd say they can't do much good, and it's definitely safer to use hyphens whenever possible.

**dems** · 09-02-2004, 01:25 PM

thank you guys for your input... i appreciate it!

dems

**junjun** · 09-21-2004, 09:48 AM

Great info, DevelopWeb.
Do you know of a source on the web that speaks of/has tested the Google algorytm when it comes to recognizing word in an unbroken string?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevelopedWeb

Google's algorithm is actually very intelligent--it automatically breaks down any given URL, even those that are just a single unbroken string, and parses it into seperate words. In fact, in can recognize "catshop.com" (random example, I know) as both "Cat Shop" and "Cats Hop".

**Lola** · 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevelopedWeb

Google's algorithm is actually very intelligent--it automatically breaks down any given URL, even those that are just a single unbroken string, and parses it into seperate words. In fact, in can recognize "catshop.com" (random example, I know) as both "Cat Shop" and "Cats Hop".

Visit Whois to get the automatic breakdown of your domain name. (My domain, DevelopedWeb.com, shows up under the "wildcard search" as both 'developedweb' and 'developed web'.

Spaces won't help your site get indexed better. Do they hurt? I'd say they can't do much good, and it's definitely safer to use hyphens whenever possible.

That is not true. When typing "rainbow six 3" in google, it highlghts rainbowsix3 and rainbow_six_3 in the urls.

Look at result two and three. Even though u searched Rainbow Six 3 with spaces, it still recognized the url's "rainbowsix3" and the result url "rainbow_six_3" making your theory incorrect.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Rainb...&start=10&sa=N

Also look at the last result on that page. It's url contains "Rainbow_Six_3" and only the 3 was highlighted, meaning even if you searched the word "Rainbow Six 3" it only looks for the lowercase of "Rainbow Six 3" that's why it would find "rainbow_six_3" but not "Rainbow_Six"

I didn't even know that one myself. I have to jot that down.

**Lola** · 10-10-2004, 04:20 PM

Another one I just discovered. If you search on google ' "Rainbow Six 3" ' in qoutations marks, it only highlights the lowercase urls of "rainbow-six-3" but not "rainbowsix3" making the use of - as your seperate by far the most powerful. I am so lucky I just discovered this lol.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22ra...&start=20&sa=N

**DevelopedWeb** · 10-10-2004, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lola

That is not true. When typing "rainbow six 3" in google, it highlghts rainbowsix3 and rainbow_six_3 in the urls.

Look at result two and three. Even though u searched Rainbow Six 3 with spaces, it still recognized the url's "rainbowsix3" and the result url "rainbow_six_3" making your theory incorrect.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Rainb...&start=10&sa=N

Also look at the last result on that page. It's url contains "Rainbow_Six_3" and only the 3 was highlighted, meaning even if you searched the word "Rainbow Six 3" it only looks for the lowercase of "Rainbow Six 3" that's why it would find "rainbow_six_3" but not "Rainbow_Six"

I didn't even know that one myself. I have to jot that down.

There is a flaw in your logic: take another look at the search results in that URL you just included. Google was bolding the search terms in the URL's whenever it found "rainbow", "six", or "3". However, it did not bold the capitalized versions of these words in the URL (even though you searched with "Rainbow" and "Six" both capitalized). This was completely unaffected by the URL's having spaces, dashes, underscores, or just plain text--all of those results had "rainbow", "six" and "3" bolded whenever they came up.

Examples:

www.xbox.com/en-US/rainbowsix3/default.htm
ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/ tom-clancys-rainbow-six-3/501634p1.html
www.gengamers.com/html/rainbow_six_3__athena_sword.html

This is due to a seperate issue of how Google recognizes capitalization, not spacing between keywords.

**Lola** · 10-10-2004, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevelopedWeb

There is a flaw in your logic: take another look at the search results in that URL you just included. Google was bolding the search terms in the URL's whenever it found "rainbow", "six", or "3". However, it did not bold the capitalized versions of these words in the URL (even though you searched with "Rainbow" and "Six" both capitalized). This was completely unaffected by the URL's having spaces, dashes, underscores, or just plain text--all of those results had "rainbow", "six" and "3" bolded whenever they came up.

Examples:

www.xbox.com/en-US/rainbowsix3/default.htm
ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/ tom-clancys-rainbow-six-3/501634p1.html
www.gengamers.com/html/rainbow_six_3__athena_sword.html

This is due to a seperate issue of how Google recognizes capitalization, not spacing between keywords.

That's exactly what I said. Did you even bother to read my post? Also, I meant to quote th e guy on top of you: junjun.

**Lola** · 10-10-2004, 06:48 PM

Also, when doign this search:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...22&btnG=Search

I quoted "Rainbow Six 3" inside the search box. And the results that had rainbowsix3 without the -'s didn't get bolded. But the ones with the - did get bolded. That's another thing you didn't know, because you said this:

"Google's algorithm is actually very intelligent--it automatically breaks down any given URL, even those that are just a single unbroken string..."

And that is wrong, because when you have 3 quoted words liek "Rainbow Six 3" inside the search box, it doesn't break down an unbroken string, but does break down a string with -'s.

So wassup now eh papi!?