There is a debate going on in the SEO community about whether a tilde in a URL enables / disables a Web page from passing any value.

Here is our thought on this matter. If you are placing text links on various Web sites, then it is okay if a few of the sites have tildes in the URL. You want your text link campaign to be as natural as possible, so the more important thing is making sure your keywords relate to the site on which they are on.

To test out the value of a tilde URL, your best bet is to place a text link on a tilde Web site using a keyword that you would not normally target. This way you can get a clear cut answer of the value of that tilde URL.

Overall, based on our experience we do believe that a tilde URL passes normal value like any other site, but as with everything, just don't overdo it.