Solved hreflang href: Should Japanese URL characters be encoded

[Hermski]

Hi all,

I have searched in vain for a concrete answer to this question.

If you're dealing with the hreflang tags yourself (i.e. don't use automation plugins etc.), is it okay if the URLs (e.g. in Japanese) remain unencrypted?

Example (not encoded):
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ja" href="https://domain. com/エグザイルリンク/" />

The same encoded:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ja" href="https://domain. com/%e3%82%a8%e3%82%b0%e3%82%b6%e3%82%a4%e3%83%ab%e3%83%aa%e3%83%b3%e3%82%af" />

When checking the unencoded tags in hreflang checkers, they don't seem to have a problem with this (they don't flag any issues).

Also on other websites I see both approaches with unencoded and encoded hreflang variants.

What is your opinion on this, could there be conflicts and/or is there a best practice?

Thanks all

[Kateparish]

@Hermski If you're manually adding hreflang tags to your website and not using automation plugins, using unencoded URLs is acceptable. Hreflang checkers usually don't have issues with unencoded tags, and many websites use both encoded and unencoded hreflang variants.
Encoded URLs help avoid potential issues with special characters or encoding errors. However, if you're comfortable using unencoded URLs and your hreflang tags are being properly recognized by search engines, there's no inherent conflict or best practice that dictates one approach over the other.