Source: Search Engine Roundtable by barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz). Read the original article
TL;DR Summary of When Case Sensitivity Matters for SEO and Google URLs
Google Search treats URL case sensitivity differently depending on the URL part: path, filename, and query parameters are case-sensitive, while the domain name is not. Being consistent with URL casing helps avoid duplication issues and ensures proper canonicalization. Relying on Google to resolve case differences can risk SEO performance, so it’s best to maintain uniform URLs across your site.
Optimixed’s Overview: Understanding the Impact of URL Case Sensitivity on SEO Effectiveness
Key Insights on URL Case Sensitivity and SEO
John Mueller from Google clarified important nuances about how case sensitivity in URLs influences SEO and search indexing:
- Hostname / Domain Name: Not case-sensitive, so variations in case here do not affect SEO or indexing.
- URL Path, Filename, and Query Parameters: Case-sensitive, meaning /Example-Page and /example-page can be treated as different URLs.
Why Consistency Matters
Inconsistent casing can create duplicate content issues because Google may see multiple URLs with the same content but different cases as separate pages. While Google often consolidates duplicates, relying on this can be risky for SEO. Ensuring all URLs use consistent casing helps with:
- Canonicalization: Properly consolidates signals to a single URL version.
- Robots.txt Effectiveness: Case differences in robots.txt can affect how URLs are crawled or blocked.
- Improved Crawl Efficiency: Prevents unnecessary duplication that wastes crawl budget.
Best Practices Recommended
To optimize SEO performance, maintain consistent URL casing across your entire website. Avoid hoping Google will automatically resolve case differences. Instead, proactively standardize URL formats in your site architecture, internal linking, and sitemap submissions to maximize indexing accuracy and ranking potential.
