P2Issue #20
URL: Uppercase
❓ What does it mean?
❓ What does it mean?
URLs with uppercase letters can create problems because most web servers treat URLs as case-sensitive.
For example,
https://example.com/Products
https://example.com/products
…may be considered two different URLs even if they load the same page.
🚨 Why is it important for SEO?
🚨 Why is it bad for SEO?
Duplicate Content → The same page may exist under multiple URLs (/Shoes vs /shoes).
Split Link Equity → Backlinks may point to different versions of the same page, diluting ranking power.
Index Bloat → Search engines may index both uppercase and lowercase variations.
Inconsistent Internal Linking → Internal links may point to both uppercase and lowercase, confusing crawlers.
User Experience Issues → Case inconsistencies make URLs harder to read and share.
✅ How to Fix It
✅ How to Fix It
Standardize URLs in lowercase → Always generate URLs in lowercase format in your CMS/website.
301 Redirect uppercase to lowercase → If uppercase versions exist, permanently redirect them.
Example in Apache (.htaccess):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteMap lc int:tolower
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} [A-Z]
RewriteRule (.*) ${lc:$1} [R=301,L]
Example in Nginx:
server {
location / {
rewrite ^(.*)$ $scheme://$host$1 permanent;
}
}
Update Internal Links → Ensure all internal links use lowercase URLs.
Canonical Tag → If redirecting isn’t possible, use canonical tags to consolidate signals to the lowercase version.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/products" />
❌ Bad Example
📌 Example
❌ Bad (Inconsistent uppercase URL):
https://example.com/Products/Shoes
✅ Good Example
✅ Good (Consistent lowercase URL):
https://example.com/products/shoes
⚡ Result
⚡ Result
Prevents duplicate content issues
Consolidates link equity
Improves crawl efficiency
Keeps URLs clean and user-friendly