Spaces (actual spaces) in URL

[Diana.varbanescu]

Hi all,

Is there a huge loss of SEO performance if a URL shows spaces with an actual space (i.e. %20) in the URL rather than a "-" (or indeed a "_")?

I know the preferred option is to have a "-", but I am just wondering if it is worth our effort to manually change the "%20" to a "-" in all the instances?

Thanks

Diana

[warcom]

Google reads "-" as a space.

So always use "-" and certainly don't use "%20"

A lot of people use "_" also, instead of using a "-" .. Which they should not be doing.

[RobertFisher]

Doug,

Good answer IMO.

Best

[DougRoberts]

You are probably better off now worrying too much about any existing URLs with %20's in. Editing these URLs  isn't going to make a massive difference (if any).

Plus, there's always a risk when you edit URLs that you break link that are earning your lots of link equity. If you decide to edit your URLs then you've got the headache of setting up re-rdirects or contacting any linking sites and asking for them to change the links. You'll need to check your internal links too.

The big advantage of not having %20s or other strangeness in your URLs is that it does makes them more meaningful are shareable by human beings. You really don't want to have to read these out or print them on the side of a lorry or brochure!

So, I'd suggest it's not worth worrying about, but may depend on your circumstances (such as the age and the number of links). If it's a new site with no links to these pages and there aren't many of them then you may want to do it just to keep things tidy/consistent.

If you've got more than a few, with inbound links to them then you're probably better off using your time elsewhere.