The Difference Between a Hyphen and an En Dash in URLs (And How to Replace Them)

When creating URLs for your WordPress posts or pages, you might notice a small, yet important, difference in how characters like hyphens and dashes are handled. Specifically, the en dash (–) and hyphen (-) can sometimes appear in slugs, and it’s important to understand how to replace them properly.

What’s the Difference?

• Hyphen (-): This is the most common dash used in URLs. It’s the character you’ll typically use when separating words in a slug, such as high-performance.

• En Dash (–): The en dash is slightly longer than the hyphen and is often used in writing to represent ranges (like “10–20”) or connections (like “New York–London flight”). In URLs, however, the en dash isn’t a safe character, and it may cause issues with linking or indexing.

Sometimes, WordPress may automatically generate a slug with an en dash instead of a hyphen, especially if the title of your post contains one. This can lead to unexpected behaviors or errors when sharing links or optimizing for SEO.

How to Fix It

If you ever encounter an en dash in your URL or slug, here’s a simple way to replace it:

1. Identify the En Dash: Look at your URL or post slug. If you see a longer dash (–), it’s likely an en dash.

2. Replace with a Hyphen: Simply replace the en dash with a standard hyphen. You can copy and paste the hyphen below to replace any en dashes:

   Hyphen: -
   En Dash: –

   Example:
   Before: high–performance-cpu
   After: high-performance-cpu

Why It’s Important

• SEO & User Experience: Having hyphens in your URLs is not only a standard practice for readability but also beneficial for SEO. Google prefers clean, consistent URLs, and using a hyphen instead of an en dash helps maintain that.

• Linking Issues: En dashes are not URL-safe characters, which means they could cause issues when sharing links or in the backend. Always ensure your slugs contain only standard characters, like hyphens.

Final Tip

Always review your slugs before publishing a post in WordPress. If you notice an en dash in the generated URL, simply replace it with a hyphen to avoid any future issues. You can also manually edit the slug under the “Permalink” section in the WordPress editor to make sure it’s clean and user-friendly.

By paying attention to these small details, you can help improve both your site’s functionality and SEO.