Space in URL

What This Means

A URL on the site contains a literal space character in the path or query string, rather than the URL-encoded equivalent (%20 or +). Spaces are not valid characters in URLs.

Why It Matters for SEO

A URL with a literal space is technically invalid per RFC 3986. Browsers handle them by auto-encoding to %20, but many systems (APIs, CDNs, RSS parsers, link-tracking tools) may not. The literal space can cause: link breakage when URLs are copied into plain text; incorrect URL parsing by third-party tools; inconsistent behavior across different HTTP clients.

What the Platform Checks

The platform checks discovered URLs for the presence of literal space characters (ASCII 0x20) in the URL path or query string. Fires on detection.

How to Fix It

• Replace spaces in URL paths with hyphens (preferred for readability): /my-page/ instead of /my%20page/.
• Configure your CMS or web server to automatically replace spaces with hyphens when generating URLs from content titles.
• If spaces exist in existing live URLs: set up 301 redirects from the spaced versions to hyphenated versions and update any internal links.