WordPress Underscore Plugin

While I’m in the mood for releaseing code, here’s a quick and easy plugin for WordPress. If you’re like me, you prefer the ‘_’ underscore character in URI’s much better than the default ‘-’ dash in WordPress. Just unzip this file into your plugins directory, activate it, and it will sanitize your URI slugs with underscores instead of dashes. I’ve only tested this on my install of 1.5, so I’m not sure if it works on anything older. If anyone wants to test it for me, let me know how it works.

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Published April 06, 2005 by:

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  1. I had heard that Google treats ‘words_like_this’ as one word, but ‘words-like-this’ as seperate words, so the latter would be better treated in the search results than the former. However, this may be a Myth.

    paul haine paul haine

    April 6th, 2005

  2. Also from a usability standpoint it is MUCH easier to read-this-text than to_read_this_text.

    That being said, nice plugin.

    Chris J. Davis Chris J. Davis

    April 7th, 2005

  3. Chris: Perhaps it’s a personal preference, but I’ve always found that the underscore separates the words more than the dash, and doesn’t interfere with the characters themselves. It’s far easier for me to read your second ‘to_read_this_text.’ But it could just be that I’m used to it.

    Steve Smith Steve Smith

    April 7th, 2005

  4. still, i think the seo thing with underscores… the dashes are better.

    Dustin Dustin

    April 7th, 2005

  5. Just wanted to tell you that your designs are absolutely beautiful! I visit all the time to see what’s new :)

    sigh Right after I switched from b2 to WP, WP 1.5 was unveiled. I’m too stubborn to upgrade from 1.2 right now… I don’t want to give up all my current plugins :)

    Bubs Bubs

    April 8th, 2005

  6. Ohh if the SEO thing could be disproved I would definitely install this plugin ”_” is much easier on the eye in my opinion.

    Beautiful site by the way.

    Rob Winters Rob Winters

    April 20th, 2005

  7. Search Google for ‘URI underscore dash’ and examine the highlighted words in the URIs for some disproving.

    Well, that’s for Google at least, I have no idea about other search engines… oh, Yahoo does it too. Not too sure about MSN Search as it does not highlight anything.

    Philip Nilsson Philip Nilsson

    May 16th, 2005

  8. Until I figure out how to get redirects from my MT-style archives to the new WP-style archives, I thought I’d use your underscore plugin. When I add it to my plugins directory it doesn’t seem to install properly. On my WP plugins management page it’s posting your plugins code on that page itself. Does the plugin need to be customized in any way? Thanks for the tips!

    Sooz Sooz

    May 19th, 2005

  9. Actually for SEO you ideally want onebigphrase, not one-big-phrase or one_big_phrase. Of course search engines are better at picking out seperate words than our eyes are. (- read most smoothly for me.) I’d say that – are better than _ if you need to use a seperator, but for best SEO results, don’t use any at all.

    I’m just getting into Word Press, great site, thanks!

    John John

    May 21st, 2005

  10. I have a plugin that allows me to automaticaly post from an rss feed the only problem is that it post the perminent likes like this One Big Word which comes out this One%20Big%20Word can your plugin fix this? (Of cousre with some editing.

    Myles Braithwaite Myles Braithwaite

    July 29th, 2005