URL Encoder & Decoder

Instantly encode and decode text for safe, valid, and SEO-friendly URLs.

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Your Essential Tool for Flawless URLs

Convert special characters like ?, &, and spaces into a safe format to ensure your links always work perfectly.

The Ultimate Guide to URL Encoding

What is URL Encoding and Why Is It Non-Negotiable?

URL encoding, officially known as percent-encoding, is a fundamental web mechanism. It converts characters that have a special meaning in a URL's syntax—or are not allowed at all—into a representation that is universally safe and can be correctly interpreted by any web server or browser.

The process is simple: an unsafe character is replaced by a percent sign (`%`) followed by its two-digit hexadecimal code from the ASCII table. For example, a space becomes %20.

This isn't just a technicality; it's crucial for:

  • Data Integrity: Ensures that data passed in a URL query string (e.g., ?q=search term) arrives at the server exactly as intended.
  • Preventing Errors: Without encoding, a character like `#` could be misinterpreted as a fragment identifier, cutting off the rest of the URL.
  • SEO Health: Search engines require clean, crawlable URLs. Proper encoding prevents indexing errors and ensures that search bots correctly understand your site structure and parameters.

How to Use Our URL Encoder & Decoder

  1. Input Your Data: Paste your full URL, a snippet of text, or a parameter string into the input box above.
  2. Choose Your Action: Click Encode to convert your input into the URL-safe format. Click Decode to change an encoded string back to its original form.
  3. Copy and Use: Your result appears instantly. Use the Copy button to grab the text for your project.

Commonly Encoded Characters

Here is a quick reference table for characters that are frequently encoded in URLs:

Character Name Encoded Value
Space%20
#Hash / Pound%23
$Dollar Sign%24
&Ampersand%26
/Forward Slash%2F
:Colon%3A
?Question Mark%3F

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the difference between encodeURI() and encodeURIComponent()?

These are two key JavaScript functions. encodeURI() is for encoding a full URI and will *not* encode reserved characters that give a URL its structure (:, /, ?, &, =). encodeURIComponent() is for encoding a component of a URI, like a parameter value, and *will* encode those reserved characters. Our tool uses the more thorough encodeURIComponent() method for maximum safety.

Why is a space encoded as %20?

The ASCII value for a space character is 32. In hexadecimal, 32 is represented as '20'. The percent-encoding standard dictates that this becomes %20, ensuring the space is correctly handled everywhere.

Is URL encoding critical for good SEO?

Yes, absolutely. Proper encoding is vital for technical SEO. It prevents broken links that cost you traffic, ensures search crawlers can index your pages correctly, and helps you avoid duplicate content issues that can arise from inconsistent URL parameters.

What is double URL encoding?

This is when a string is encoded twice. For example, & becomes %26, and if encoded again, the % in %26 becomes %25, resulting in %2526. This usually happens by mistake and can cause systems to fail when decoding. You should almost never need to do this intentionally.

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