Hyphens or Underscores in Website URLs? Google’s October Guidance Explained

What changed on October 23

Google’s October 23 documentation update clarifies hyphens versus underscores in its URL guidance. The URL structure documentation recommends hyphens to separate words because they make word boundaries easier to identify. This is a clarification of guidance, not an announcement of a new ranking update.

For a new business service page, a short, descriptive path such as /kitchen-renovations is a reasonable choice. The path should help someone recognize the destination when they see or share it. Repeating a location or keyword several times does not improve that explanation.

Set a small naming convention for new pages

Choose the name from the page’s purpose before publication. Use the same convention across the content team and keep temporary production labels out of public addresses. If a page is meant to stay useful for several years, avoid adding a year to the slug unless the subject genuinely belongs to a dated edition.

Document how the application handles capitalization and duplicate paths. A consistent URL plan should agree with routing, canonical tags, navigation and the sitemap. A CMS editor should not need to guess whether changing a title will silently change an established address.

Should you rename existing URLs with underscores?

Do not assume every existing page needs immediate renaming. First identify a concrete benefit and the affected dependencies. A live service page may already be linked from customer emails, partner websites, advertisements and printed material. The work includes preserving those journeys, even when the new slug looks cleaner.

Our recommendation is to adopt the convention for new pages and assess older URLs within planned maintenance or a redesign. If a current path causes confusion or a broader restructuring is already justified, include the rename in an explicit migration plan. If the only reason is a presumed immediate ranking boost, the evidence does not establish that outcome.

Treat an approved rename as a complete change

Suppose a hypothetical company moves /kitchen_renovations to /kitchen-renovations. The old address should lead directly to the relevant replacement using an appropriate permanent redirect. The new page should be the destination used by internal links, canonical metadata and the sitemap.

• Record the old URL and the exact replacement before editing.
• Check for an existing redirect so the change does not create a chain or loop.
• Update navigation, contextual links and canonical references.
• Verify the old address redirects and the final page returns the intended content.
• Check the public sitemap and monitor the move in Search Console.

Use a developer-reviewed redirect mechanism supported by the site’s platform. A client-side message asking visitors to click another link is a different experience. Our website migration checklist covers larger changes and the evidence to retain before launch.

Make future publishing easier

A good publishing system lets an editor improve a headline without accidentally breaking a shared URL. It also makes redirects reviewable when a path must change. Ask about those behaviours while choosing a CMS or commissioning a custom website, when they are easier to plan.

The same naming discipline helps a service website stay understandable as its content grows. Decide where services, projects and articles belong, then add new pages within that structure. Keep the URL useful to a person and let the page supply the depth.

If your redesign includes a URL cleanup, bring an export of the current addresses to Menerai’s website planning conversation. We can scope the design and development work alongside the redirects and checks needed for the change.