A URL is a website address that may be case-sensitive, depending on the server’s operating system. A change in server could cause issues with embedded links and folders, resulting in lost traffic and revenue. Webmasters should create URLs that can easily transfer between operating systems.
A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is a technical term for what is more commonly known as a website address. In a web browser, the URL field is where a user can type or paste an address such as wisegeek.com. While domain names are not case sensitive, the rest of the URL may be. In our example, this would be everything following the “.com” as in wisegeek.com/are-urls-case-sensitive.htm.
Every website is hosted on a server, a type of computer that runs continuously to provide constant access to the websites it hosts. Servers running Windows® operating systems ignore case in URLs, interpreting identical spelling as the same address. A server running a Linux® or UNIX® operating system, however, would interpret the two different capitalizations as pointing to two different page addresses. This could be a problem for some webmasters.
For example, a person named Jack designed a website for gamers. Jack’s hypothetical site features blog, news, tips, cheat, and forum pages, is packed with many pages, and has amassed quite a following over the years, funneling several thousand visitors a day. When Jack was building the site, he used mixed fonts to name each page, like “TipsandTricks.html” because it was easier to read than “tipsandtricks.html”. In embedded links, he used lowercase to point to pages. Other websites that point to Jack’s pages may also use lowercase letters.
One day, Jack receives an email that his hosting service will be updating their servers, migrating websites to newer machines. Jack notices that once this happens, his traffic drops significantly on many of his pages. Since his address hasn’t changed, Jack might wonder what happened.
If the new computers were running Linux® or UNIX® operating systems, Jack’s URLs would suddenly become case-sensitive, as would the folders he created on his website. Links to “…/tipsandtricks.html” will result in a 404 error page, a message announcing that the page could not be found. Over time, search bots will make the correct connections, but revenue and traffic would be lost in the meantime. To correct the situation, he could ask his host to allow him to modify the 404 error page so that it forwards visitors to the correct addresses.
This case-sensitive rule also applies to folders. If a webmaster creates a folder on a Linux® or UNIX® host server, such as “…/html/Folder1/” this is different than “…/html/folder1/” and none of the pages contained in that folder will be accessible to the Internet without the appropriate case specified in the embedded links.
While Microsoft® operating systems have dominated public servers by making case-sensitive URLs less important, that could change. Linux® offers attractive alternatives and the popularity of open source software continues to grow. Today’s webmasters will ideally create addresses, embedded links, and folders that can easily flow from one host or operating system to another. This should ensure traffic and revenue are retained and allow for a stress-free migration for both webmasters and visitors.
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