HELP: Why is PR different on URL when capitalized instead of Lowercase ?

[blackdog]

I am a novice in the SEO/web world but I do know that toolbar PR is an unreliable factor, however, I am working on a website that was redesigned in September of 2007 and there is something I don’t understand about its PR as reported on the toolbar. Around the beginning of April 2008 the toolbar PR on all the pages in my sub-directories disappeared. In my research, I noticed the first letter of my six main sub-directories are capitalized, BUT if I go into the browser and change the capital letters to lowercase, my PR shows up again.

I looked at my Google Analytics and apparently I have traffic coming in from both versions of the sub-directory (capitalized & lowercase).

Likewise, when I search for my top keywords, the landing page that Google lists in SERPS varies from capital to lowercase and sometimes shows twice (both instances, capitalized and lowercase)

In the course of my research, I also found a blog dated May 7, 2008 that was suggesting a Google Algorithm change making Google natural searches case sensitive for keywords. Where Google used to see “Washington” and “washington” as the same keyword, now it is recognized as two separate keywords…

Google appears to Change Algorithm: Using Capital Letters Creates New Keywords | Big Oak SEO Blog

That may or may not be related, as it pertain to Google’s treatment of user queries in upper or lower case.

Here’s the real question: should I rename all my files and links to lower case?
Will if affect the page’s position in the SERPS?

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts?... Is this an indication of Google perhaps becoming case sensitive?

I appreciate all feedback in advance.

[wige]

Yes. Generally speaking, URLs are case sensitive. Most servers will differentiate between Washington and washington, so switching to a consistent URL scheme would be to your benefit. You could run into duplicate content issues as Google starts to see the different URLs, and you can also dilute the flow of pagerank between variations of the pages.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by wige

Yes. Generally speaking, URLs are case sensitive. Most servers will differentiate between Washington and washington, so switching to a consistent URL scheme would be to your benefit. You could run into duplicate content issues as Google starts to see the different URLs, and you can also dilute the flow of pagerank between variations of the pages.

You will see a duplicate content issue with different case URL's when it comes to Google. I had a site in .asp where the coding in the functions used capital letters and others were in lower case. Unfortunately, took me too long to figure it out. In many instances, both URL's were removed from the index.

As wige pointed out, be consistant with the URL's.

Dave

[mjtaylor]

So, yes, it's important to be consistent with the URLs and they should be made all the same. But the question remains unanswered: do we think the position in the SERPs will drop as a result?

For example, let's say a given page domain.com/PageName.html has toolbar PR and domain.com/pagename.html doesn't ... if all the links are changed to the lower case version, is it reasonable to assume that the PR will get "reassigned" to the lower case page? I would assume yes, but I would be interested to get some confirmation.

If we assume all the PR is coming from internal links, this is a safe bet, isn't it?

But if some of the PR is coming from external links and they are coming to domain.com/PageName.html, will Google pass that PR onto domain.com/pagename.html?

What do you think?

[kgun]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

So, yes, it's important to be consistent with the URLs and they should be made all the same. But the question remains unanswered: do we think the position in the SERPs will drop as a result?

For example, let's say a given page domain.com/PageName.html has toolbar PR and domain.com/pagename.html doesn't ... if all the links are changed to the lower case version, is it reasonable to assume that the PR will get "reassigned" to the lower case page? I would assume yes, but I would be interested to get some confirmation.

If we assume all the PR is coming from internal links, this is a safe bet, isn't it?

But if some of the PR is coming from external links and they are coming to domain.com/PageName.html, will Google pass that PR onto domain.com/pagename.html?

What do you think?

1. Programmatically it is a simple task, but is there a
2. semantic difference?

[crankydave]

Case in URL's basically have to be treated as separate pages. UNIX is case-sensitive, while Windows isn't. SE's need to respect the fact that they can be separate pages. "Value" is not automatically/neccessarily going to be transferred from one to the other much like a canonical URL might since this is not a canonical issue.

Internally (navigation), making the changes isn't going to pose the problems. It's any external links that can pose them. The thing to do is to redirect one to the other ie. all the upper case URL's to the lower case ones. Once all internal linking is changed to be consistant, any external links will be redirected to the preferred case URL's.

As far as ranking problems, sure there can be. My site went from over 1K of indexed pages to less than 300. After making the case changes, the pages started getting reindexed. In my instance, the problems were being created (for the most part) by internal linking and not external.

Dave

[kgun]

So you answer yes to the question in 2. above?

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by kgun

So you answer yes to the question in 2. above?

In some instances I could see that. PR = PageRank or Press Release Pr = The abbreviation for pair. Same with St = Saint or st = The abbreviation for street.

However, IMO it's more basically along the lines of how an operating system/server may recognize case being 2 separate pages and the need for SE's to treat it as such when indexing. There's nothing to prevent someone using the same URL in different case structure for 2 totally different pages. Not that I suggest this but as long as there are operating systems that are case sensitive it needs to be respected.

Dave

[kgun]

Originally Posted by crankydave

In some instances I could see that. PR = PageRank or Press Release Pr = The abbreviation for pair. Same with St = Saint or st = The abbreviation for street.

However, IMO it's more basically along the lines of how an operating system/server may recognize case being 2 separate pages and the need for SE's to treat it as such when indexing. There's nothing to prevent someone using the same URL in different case structure for 2 totally different pages. Not that I suggest this but as long as there are operating systems that are case sensitive it needs to be respected.

Dave

May be a good explanation. There is also an alternative explanation.

An URL, a subset of an URI again a subset of an IRI, opens for trouble when the more advanced XLink model becomes more widespread, unless it is unique.

[blackdog]

Originally Posted by crankydave

The thing to do is to redirect one to the other ie. all the upper case URL's to the lower case ones. Once all internal linking is changed to be consistant, any external links will be redirected to the preferred case URL's.

Dave

thanks, dave... why didn't i think of that?!

[incrediblehelp]

Obviously you need to be consistent in your URL case, but in you problem have you identified why Google is still attributing PR to the different versions? Is it an outside website or are you internally linking to both versions?

[Tony_V]

any chance there is a rewrite you can do in .htaccess that would fix this issue like in the case of www and no www?

[lawrephord]

it is good to have both types of customers supported the lower case people and the upper case people

[lawrephord]

2 two pages are needed the lower case page and the upper case page

[panana]

One thing I'd like to get clear, if only for my own peace of mind - We're speaking here of all URLs EXCEPT the domain itself, correct? For example, RedWidgets.com and redwidgets.com would not be seen as different URLs - am I right in that?

I was aware of URL.com/page.html and URL.com/Page.html being treated as different destinations, but the domain alone would be news to me. Then again, if www and non-www can be problematic for Google....

Jon

[netace]

The domain names are not case-sensitive. However, the entire portion past the .com/ IS CASE-SENSITIVE in Linux and Unix systems. Since most reliable servers run Unix or Linux, you'd best get used to the issue.

The Google admin staff rarely tells you the straight scoop and always seems to want to change its mind. Heaven forbid you learn how they actually analyze your site!

This is part of the reason why most marketers are list-oriented and use targeted e-mail to reach prospective customers. Google only gets those that are searching for a specific keyword. Email reaches those that have previously been interested or are current or former clients. With a valid link to your URL in the email, you needn't worry about the user mis-typing the link.

[panana]

Thanks very much for the confirmation on straight domain URLs. With the way things sometimes are in the SE world I wanted to be certain about top level address(es). Looks like I'm safe for now.

[blackdog]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Obviously you need to be consistent in your URL case, but in you problem have you identified why Google is still attributing PR to the different versions? Is it an outside website or are you internally linking to both versions?

internally all of our links are capitalized... and when i checked our external links randomly, they were all capitalized.
BUT my PR is on the lowercase version, so there is where my confusion occurs since our PR is measured from the quantity/quality of external links.

[incrediblehelp]

Yes that is a problem. No easy answer here. I would just pick one version and make sure you have 301 redirects to the version you have picked.

[blackdog]

thanks for all your help! i appreciate everyones willingness to come up with a solution.

[HouseJeanie]

How about subdomains? Are they case-sensitive?

Originally Posted by netace

The domain names are not case-sensitive. However, the entire portion past the .com/ IS CASE-SENSITIVE in Linux and Unix systems. Since most reliable servers run Unix or Linux, you'd best get used to the issue.

The Google admin staff rarely tells you the straight scoop and always seems to want to change its mind. Heaven forbid you learn how they actually analyze your site!

This is part of the reason why most marketers are list-oriented and use targeted e-mail to reach prospective customers. Google only gets those that are searching for a specific keyword. Email reaches those that have previously been interested or are current or former clients. With a valid link to your URL in the email, you needn't worry about the user mis-typing the link.

[wige]

Originally Posted by HouseJeanie

How about subdomains? Are they case-sensitive?

Nothing before the first "/" is case sensitive. Everything after it is.

I have been experimenting with this a bit, trying to find a solution that could be added to .htaccess to automatically redirect users to a lowercase version of a URL, but so far I have not had any luck.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by wige

Nothing before the first "/" is case sensitive. Everything after it is.

I have been experimenting with this a bit, trying to find a solution that could be added to .htaccess to automatically redirect users to a lowercase version of a URL, but so far I have not had any luck.

Found this thread wige. Perhaps it may help...

upper and lower case

Dave