When we deal with hyphens and unscores in domain names, we need to have an understanding of what Google does with these two characters. Without the knowledge, we will not be sure how to optimize our websites for search engines - which would prove to do detrimental. Google sees hyphens as dividers in domain names and in the content of a website. Underscores are ignored completely by Google.

In order to prove that hyphens are seen as dividers and that underscores are ignored by Google, a test is required. I spent some time searching online for an example, as I have not had a chance to run a test myself, and wanted to get this article out, after reading a comment by WizardMan.

The filename: wagatukepo-sitynozfau-mazidipole_vukertalet.php was created firstly, and a Google search was performed for these 4 keywords. Google yielded no results for these key words. The site was submitted to Google, and once indexed by Google, another set of searches was performed for these keys words. The results may be seen below:

Results: wagatukepo: 1 Google result sitynozfau: 1 Google result
mazidipole: No Google result vukertalet: No Google result
mazidipole_vukertalet: 1 Google result

With the above results, we can see that Google sees hyphens as dividers in URLs and ignores underscore. The second test required, is to test whether Google sees hyphens as dividers and that underscores are ignored in the content of a website. The second test yielded the following results:

Results: bozaketerp: 1 Google result boujulanbi: 1 Google result
vorismetapalu: No Google result terplamili: No Google result
vorismetapalu_terplamili: 1 google result

Once again we can see that, Google sees hyphens as dividers in the content and the underscores are ignored.

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