One way to ensure that your website is appearing on Google search results is through an inspection tool. An inspection tool makes use of a valid URL, and with it, you can generally determine if the URL is on Google. You can watch a video to learn more about how inspection tools work and their benefits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe_-TkdbXN0
If you’re not sure if your URL is valid for Google, you can check by observing the following vital characters.
You have to be careful in encoding URLs to avoid future issues and errors. One of the main problems associated with this is not knowing how to properly encode the correct characters in a URL to make it clean and workable.
What Does Invalid URL Mean?
A URL or Uniform Resource Locator is a web address of any resource on the internet. It’s made of a limited set of special characters, specifically from the US-ASCII character set. A valid URL means that the link works and directs a user to the webpage when accessed.
Now, its opposite, an invalid one, can mean various things, including:
- The finder isn’t allowed to access the specified web page.
- There’s a mistake when typing the URL or within the URL itself.
- The site or page you’re trying to access has been redirected to another page or site, but the developers didn’t do it correctly.
What Triggers This Issue?
Invalid URLs happen because of the following factors or instances:
- The legal web page or site doesn’t exist anymore.
- There were mistakes in the URL when it was entered. Examples include inputting spaces.
- Invalid characters that are not allowed or accepted in the list of chars were used.
- It is incomplete and missing some characters.
How To Check the Issue
There are various tools and techniques to check validity. Developers, programmers, and people with enough coding knowledge can use Java or Regex to check.
To manually check if a URL is valid or not, you can try observing and checking the link itself. There should be no invalid characters, and reserved characters must not be used excessively. There should also be no spaces in the URL. Additionally, the link should use https:// or http://, followed by the domain name.
In this section of our Site Audit tool, you’re looking at a crucial aspect of your website’s health: the correctness of your URLs. We’ve highlighted any URLs that contain non-standard characters or have uppercase characters which might not conform to best practices. By clicking on ‘View issue’, you’ll get a detailed list of pages that need your attention, not just a raw count. This helps you focus on what’s important: fixing these issues to improve your site’s performance and SEO ranking. Our tool takes the complexity out of diagnosing and repairing URL problems, streamlining the process for you.
In this Sitechecker tool, you can uncover and address issues like URLs containing non-ASCII characters, which could potentially cause problems with how your website is accessed and indexed. By clicking on the issue labeled “URL contains non-ASCII characters,” the tool reveals a list of specific pages that have this problem. Each listed URL will show you key details such as the page’s weight, status code, and the date the issue was detected. This allows you to pinpoint the problem areas directly and understand the impact on your site’s performance, enabling you to make the necessary corrections for better SEO outcomes.
Optimize Your URLs for Better Search Rankings!
Ensure your URLs are up to SEO standards with our Sitechecker Audit tool.
Why Is It Important?
The URL is the name of your resource online. You must ensure that it’s valid to help your resource reach your target audience and grow. This makes checking for validity more crucial since it links to your resource and is generally used to promote your page or resource. An invalid URL can result in unsupported pages or a finder being directed to illegal sites instead of yours.
How To Fix the Issue
The best way to fix this is to ensure that the link is valid using safe and accurate characters and, of course, proper coding. Use only the following: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-._~:/?#[]@!$&’ ()*+,;=
Additionally, you can also try the following:
- Learn when and how to use percent-coding and reserved characters.
- Decide what URL style you want to use.
- Set up a 301 redirect so links to your non-preferred style will still direct to the right style and lead to your resource path.
Use encoding tools that can easily convert invalid URLs to valid ones.
