URL uses underscores instead of hyphens — the fix
This URL uses underscores (_) as word separators instead of hyphens (-). Google treats hyphens as word separators but joins underscored words together.
Where this fits: crawlability in SEO
Crawlability is whether search engine bots can physically reach and read your pages. Before Google can rank anything, Googlebot has to fetch it: follow links to it, receive a successful response, and parse the HTML. Crawl problems are silent — the page looks fine in a browser while bots hit walls (robots rules, broken chains, server errors, infinite URL spaces). Because everything downstream depends on the crawl, fixing crawlability issues usually unlocks more value per hour than any other SEO work.
Why url uses underscores instead of hyphens hurts your rankings
Google's Matt Cutts confirmed that Google treats hyphens as word separators but does not do the same for underscores. A URL like /my_page is interpreted as 'mypage' rather than 'my page', reducing the keyword signal from the URL. While this is a minor factor, it is an easy optimization to implement.
This is a low-severity issue: a polish item. Fix it in batches during scheduled maintenance; the win is cumulative quality, not a step change.
How to fix it
Replace underscores with hyphens in URL paths. Set up 301 redirects from the old underscore URLs to the new hyphenated versions. Update all internal links and sitemaps to use the new URLs.
Crawlability best practices
- Keep robots.txt minimal and deliberate — block admin/duplicate spaces, never CSS/JS assets.
- Maintain an XML sitemap that lists only canonical, indexable, 200-status pages, and reference it in robots.txt.
- Keep every important page within 3 clicks of the homepage.
- Return proper status codes: 200 for content, 301 for permanent moves, 410 for gone — never soft-404s.
- Collapse redirect chains to a single hop; update internal links to point at final URLs.
- Keep URL parameters under control — infinite filter/sort combinations burn crawl budget.
The full library: SEO best practices, by category.
Frequently asked questions
What does "URL uses underscores instead of hyphens" mean?
This URL uses underscores (_) as word separators instead of hyphens (-). Google treats hyphens as word separators but joins underscored words together.
Why does url uses underscores instead of hyphens matter for SEO?
Google's Matt Cutts confirmed that Google treats hyphens as word separators but does not do the same for underscores. A URL like /my_page is interpreted as 'mypage' rather than 'my page', reducing the keyword signal from the URL. While this is a minor factor, it is an easy optimization to implement.
How do I fix url uses underscores instead of hyphens?
Replace underscores with hyphens in URL paths. Set up 301 redirects from the old underscore URLs to the new hyphenated versions. Update all internal links and sitemaps to use the new URLs.
How serious is this issue?
This is a low-severity issue: a polish item. Fix it in batches during scheduled maintenance; the win is cumulative quality, not a step change. It belongs to the crawlability family of checks.
How do I find every page affected by this on my site?
Run a free Dr Urls audit: it crawls your site, detects url uses underscores instead of hyphens on every affected page, shows example URLs, and generates a ready-to-use fix task. Re-scan after fixing to verify the issue is gone.
Does your site have this issue?
A free Dr Urls audit crawls your site, finds every page affected by url uses underscores instead of hyphens, and hands you a ready-made fix task.
Check my site free