File Naming Conventions
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David
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February 20th, 2012
File naming conventions refers to the method that you name each of your web pages. This is an EXTREMELY important part of search engine optimization. I hate using all capital letters but I can't stress enough the importance of file naming.
The best way to think of it is that this is a way that you're directly telling a search engine what the content is on that specific page. It's important to do your keyword research before you name files because once a search engine has indexed your page it's not recommended that you change file names.
What Are File Naming Conventions
File name conventions, again, are the way that you name your web pages so that search engines can use it as a method of determining what your web page is about. It's important that you use these names wisely and not abuse them.
Consider this, you have a web page about search engine tools. If you didn't use a standard file naming convention you may name it webpage1.htm. A search engine could still crawl the web page to determine the subject matter but they give relevancy to the file names.
A better way to name the page would be to name it search-engine-tools.com. This is specifically telling the search engines that this page is related to 'search engine tools'. This is valuable because at this point search engines will use this data when determining the subject matter of your web page.
To 'Dash' Or 'Underscore'
When naming your files it's recommended that you separate your keywords with a dash. If you take a look at the file name that I gave this page you'll find that I named it with the use of dashes, file-naming-conventions.htm.
Matt Cutts, a famed Google engineer, writes one of the most visited blogs on the internet for webmasters as he'll give tips and tricks on various workings of Google and how to achieve decent rankings. He wrote a specific post on the use of 'dashes' or 'underscores' that may shed some light on the subject. You can find the page at dashes vs. underscores.
Using Your Popular Keywords
When you're naming a page it's important to find out if the keywords are even searched. For instance when I named this page I did a keyword query at WordTracker to find out what the most common phrases that are typed in regards to file naming.
I found that the keywords, 'file naming convention' is a popular search term so I included that in my file name and of course, separated each keyword with a dash.
It's important to note that you don't want to name files names like:
file-naming-conventions-best-practice-should-i-use-a-dash-or_underscore.htm.
This isn't what the search engines have in mind when they try to determine relevancy. With that said, your job is to make search engines realize how relevant and unique the content is on your web page.
Naming Directories
Another naming convention to consider is when you're naming directories. If your website is in depth you may consider placing files in regards to certain topics.
For instance, you sell car parts, you may have sections on tires, wheels, windshields, etc. Rather than placing all of your files in one place you may consider filing them so that they are easy to retrieve.
For demonstration purposes you have a folder name wheels and one named tires. All of your pages related to tires goes in the tires folder and all of the files related to wheels go in the wheels folder.
When you publish your website it would be something on the order of YourWebsite.com/wheels/ford-mustang-chrome-wheels.htm. As you can see the file name that you use becomes part of the URL that search engines will index so it's important to use the same naming scheme when you're naming the file folders as well.
It's a great way to stay organized along with the added benefit of helping the search engines determine the content of your web page.
Webmaster Forum
I invite you to visit my webmaster forum, it's a great place to discuss websites and ask questions to fellow webmasters regarding topics that you may still have questions on.