**edit** now a problem with redirect ** space in page url

jacksdad · 05-20-2004, 03:48 PM

2 pages on our website have spaces in their urls. One is www.ourdomain.com/buyers guide.htm. Google has already indexed them. I realize most pages I see have hyphens, i.e. buyers-guide.htm Is the space a problem, and should I change the 2 pages and deal with google updating.

ps. browser of course shows page as buyers%20guide.htm

Thanks for any input.

dave conz · 05-20-2004, 05:28 PM

Yes, spaces are a problem. You need to fix them. I would recommend setting up a 301 redirect from the old pages to the new ones.

jacksdad · 05-20-2004, 05:33 PM

I thought they might be so I'll use hyphens. Thanks.
Why are they a problem though?

jacksdad · 05-20-2004, 05:42 PM

While I'm at it, a few other pages have underline hyphens, or whatever they're called, i.e. sample_design_1.htm Will the "_" be a problem?

Thanks in advance!

DaveyBoy · 05-20-2004, 05:47 PM

underscore

nah those are totoally fine i think.

jacksdad · 05-20-2004, 06:09 PM

underscore... of course. can anyone confirm "underscores" are ok, and why are spaces bad? Thanks!

robert adams · 05-20-2004, 08:02 PM

spaces are bad because they are windows specific and some browsers won't even find the page because they don't recognize a file name with a space in it.

most of the net is run on unix/linux type systems, and a file name with a space is not allowed. windows is the only system that allows them, so the browsers have been written to add the %20 or whatever when it finds a space so they will work at all.

robert

DaveyBoy · 05-20-2004, 08:10 PM

underscores are fine cos it makes the file name one word.

thebassman · 05-20-2004, 08:47 PM

-'s are better, though, from what I've heard... easier for SE's to find the key words...

jacksdad · 05-20-2004, 09:04 PM

t h a n k s, oops, I mean t-h-a-n-k-s. your answer makes sense. I'll go with hyphens in the future, but will leave the existing ranked underscores for now.

jacksdad · 05-21-2004, 02:36 PM

Help! new problem.
I am using my site's control panel "cPanel X" which automatically creates redirects, but it isn't working.
I put in "buyers guide.htm" for the old page and www.mydomain.com/buyers-guide.htm for the new page.
The old page still gives a page not found error.
Here's the kicker. I tried redirecting another existing page (lets say anotherpage.htm) and it works just fine.
so it seems the space is giving me problems.
BTW, cPanel X automatically changes the old page to buyers%20guide.htm when it creates the new command.

Any thoughts? Anyone familiar with cPanel X?

fishfreek · 05-21-2004, 06:21 PM

This is less a problem with cpanel and more a problem with the space in the name. You should just ditch the space in the name and fix all the URL's.

seonewbee · 05-21-2004, 08:07 PM

How about a meta tag refresh. I have heard that they will index the second page and not the first when a fast refresh is used. Might get you in trouble, I am not sure. Never used it. Just know that you can do it.

jacksdad · 05-21-2004, 10:01 PM

fishfreek,

I have ditch the pages with the spaces. I made a few 2 word title pages with spaces in them (buyers guide) before I knew it was a bad idea. They now gone, but they were indexed by google, so I would like to set up the redirect, but it doesn't work...