Which url should i use? Thanks!
-
I have a question regarding how to use my url, we are a Swedish-based website which have the url, http://interimslösning.se/ (that contains the Swedish letter “ö”) so the url can also be written as http://xn--interimslsning-3pb.se/.
Which of the following url should I use for my backlinks, http://interimslösning.se/ or http://xn--interimslsning-3pb.se/ ? What is the difference between them regarding SEO? And is it good or bad to use letter like "ö" or other characters like that in your url?
I was thinking that maybe it is good to use the letter "ö" for local search optimization in sweden, but i don't know..
Thanks in advance!
Greetings,
Paul Linderoth -
That makes sense to me.
-
Hi Guys,
Thanks for great answers!
I guess after reading your answers that it is best that i change my url from http://interimslösning.se/ to for example http://interimslosning.se/ and then 301 redirect http://interimslösning.se/ to the new url without the letter "ö"?
Then I eliminate using the letter "ö" and I dont need to use a non user-friendly url like http://xn--interimslsning-3pb.se/
/Paul
-
Thanks for that point Russ, that is very relevant. I would then say find a better URL than either of them. I am not sure that a URL with seemingly random combinations of dashes is much better than the URL with the “ö”. It may make sense to get a new domain - unless the domain with all the dashes is well established. My impression from the post is that it was not.
-
This IS a question for Search Engine Optimization. Many web services out there will not properly handle UTF-8 characters and muck up the URL, causing it not to work at all and preventing users and Google from reaching your site via the link placed on another site. You might have already experienced this when trying to sign up with your email address while using the international characters codes. It is my recommendation that you link build with the version not including the “ö” and make sure your site has the correct canonical tag pointing to the version with the “ö”.
-
This is really not a question on search optimization as it is on usability. You need to consider how easy your URL will be for users to remember so if they need to type it in from memory or if they see it on an ad it is easy to remember.
Generally, the shorter the better - less for people to remember. The second URL with the double dash plus a single dash is not very user friendly. I would say the at the Swedish letter “ö” may be an issue for non Swedish customers who do not regularly use that letter, but if your audience does, then it should not be a problem and I would go with the http://interimslösning.se/
As far as localization, I have not seen anything on Google looking at the letters used in URL for location optimization. Normally they gather that from the domain name extension, what language you use on your site, the where the hosting server is located and most importantly, what you set as the website location in Google Search Console. The Search Console setting is the most important one for localization.
Most important, once you set your domain name, I would not use any other versions of it in anything that your publish. Set all pages on the alternate domain to 301 redirect to the proper page on the primary domain just incase the other domain leaks out somewhere.
Cheers!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google is indexing bad URLS
Hi All, The site I am working on is built on Wordpress. The plugin Revolution Slider was downloaded. While no longer utilized, it still remained on the site for some time. This plugin began creating hundreds of URLs containing nothing but code on the page. I noticed these URLs were being indexed by Google. The URLs follow the structure: www.mysite.com/wp-content/uploads/revslider/templates/this-part-changes/ I have done the following to prevent these URLs from being created & indexed: 1. Added a directive in my Htaccess to 404 all of these URLs 2. Blocked /wp-content/uploads/revslider/ in my robots.txt 3. Manually de-inedex each URL using the GSC tool 4. Deleted the plugin However, new URLs still appear in Google's index, despite being blocked by robots.txt and resolving to a 404. Can anyone suggest any next steps? I Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Tom3_150 -
URL Indexing with Keyword
Hi, My webpage url is indexed in Google but don't show when searching the Main Keyword. How can i index it with keyword. It should show on any SERP when the keyword is searched. Any suggestions.
Technical SEO | | green.h1 -
SEO URLs?
What are the best practices for generating SEO-friendly headlines? dashes between words? underscores between words? etc. Looking for a programatically generated solution that's using editor-written headlines to produce an SEO-friendly URL Thanks.
Technical SEO | | ShaneHolladay0 -
Should we use & or and in our url's?
Example: /Zambia/kasanka-&-bangweulu or /Zambia/kasanka-and-bangweulu which is the better url from the search engines point of view?
Technical SEO | | tribes0 -
Examples of sites using hreflang
Hi all, I'll soon be doing some work for a worldwide company who are launching a new site. The new site is a near clone of another of their sites in another country. Obviously I'll need to make use of rel="alternate" hreflang="x" on both sites. I've read all the Google documentation etc but was wondering if you guys could point me in the direction of a few sites which are currently implementing the tag successfully. Thanks in advance,
Technical SEO | | iProspect-Ireland0 -
Advice on strange URL problem
I'm considering doing some pro bono work for a local non-profit and upon initial review they have a number of serious issues but there is one in particular I'd like to check my thinking on. The developer who set up the site some years ago implemented a javascript redirect on their root domain so that it redirects to: http://domain.com/wordpress This is wrong for all kinds of reasons and I want to recommend eliminating this redirect and getting rid of the 'wordpress' part of the path altogether. However, the site is quite established with good PR and they would take a hit by changing the path. I'd do 301 redirects to the new URLs that would not have 'wordpress' in the path in addition to other remediation. My question - is my thinking here good? It's worth it, right? The other option is just get rid of the weird redirect and keep 'wordpress' in the path but this seems unacceptable to me. Any opinions?
Technical SEO | | friendlymachine0 -
How much of a hit to changing urls?
Hi, We have a few pages that from an SEO perspective have poor URLs. We are planning on changing them (and 301 redirecting) the old page to the new page. I heard in the past, this can temporarily negatively impact your SERP rank etc. Since the old URLs are bad, even if there is a temporary negative hit, changing them in the long run it is better, but curious if anyone has any experience on what to expect.
Technical SEO | | NicB10 -
Products with discrete URLs for each color
here is the issue. i have an ecommerce site that on a category page, shows each individual color for each product sold. and there is a distinct URL for each color. each product page shares the same content, with the only potentially differentiating factor being customer reviews (not nearly enough of these to differentiate anything). so we have URLs like: www.domain.com/product-green www.domain.com/product-yellow www.domain.com/product-red and so on. i am looking for a way to consolidate these URL while still showing all colors on the category page. the first solution i am considering is using the hash tag. so we would create www.domain.com/product#green, www.domain.com/product#yellow, www.domain.com/product#red. if possible, i would set the canonical tag as www.domain.com/product. the second solution would be to use the canonical tag and keep the URLs as is. the issue i see here is that we would need to create www.domain.com/product and show that page somewhere. www.domain.com/product would the URL that the above color URLs would canonicalize to. what would be the preferred solution? or is there something else?
Technical SEO | | rakesh_patel0