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Website Question: Are hyphens recommended for Meta Tags?

Hi Teena:  quick question, are hyphens (to replace spaces) and lower case lettering recommended for the following (as well as in the naming of images and the naming of the web page itself)

1. meta keywords (which are separated by commas)
2. meta description

Thanks, Chris

Website Answer from Teena:

Hi Chris, great question, as it's very important to understand the best practices when separating words in page links and image links on your website.

Here is my video response, simply click the triangle in the centre of the video to start, or if you prefer to read my response, scroll below the video to read in full.

. .

The short answer is:  Hyphens = good, spaces = bad, lowercase = good.

Here are a few quick tips and examples about hyphens, spaces and underscores for websites:

• Hyphens are preferred in page urls, e.g. "red-wedding-dress.html" - never use spaces in page urls.
• Hyphens are good for image urls, e.g. "red-wedding-dress.jpg", as well as no spaces, no hyphens e.g. "redweddingdress.jpg"
• Spaces should never be used in page urls e.g. "red-wedding-dress.html" is OK, but "red wedding dress.html" is not OK.
• Spaces should never be used in image names e.g. "red-wedding-dress.jpg" is OK, but "red wedding dress.jpg" is not OK.
• Lower case lettering is always preferred in page urls, e.g. "red-wedding-dress.html" rather than "Red-Wedding-Dress.html".
• Lower case lettering is always preferred in image names, e.g. "red-wedding-dress.jpg" rather than "Red-Wedding-Dress.jpg".
• Spaces between words in Meta Keywords is OK, and words/phrases are generally separated by commas.
• Meta Description - if you use keywords with hyphens, it is not essential to use them with hyphens in your Description.

Examples:

I hope this helps clarify how to name images and page URLs for Meta Tags, please let me know if this doesn't make sense, or if you have other questions.

Cheers

Teena