Google URL Rules for Spanish and English Pages
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AEO for LatAm Team
Google’s URL structure page says to separate words with hyphens, percent encode non-ASCII characters, write URL words in your audience’s language and keep letter case consistent. The page footer reads “Last updated 2026-10-21 UTC” [1], so these rules are 20 days old as of this article. For a company with Spanish and English pages, each rule changes how you write a slug.
What does Google say about URL structure?
Google asks for a crawlable URL structure and says it supports URLs as defined by IETF STD 66, the internet standard for how URLs are written [1]. Characters that the standard reserves must be percent encoded, which means written as a percent sign followed by a code [1].
The page then lists specific practices: readable words instead of long ID numbers, hyphens between words, percent encoding where needed, audience-language words, geotargeting for multi-regional sites, consistent case and short parameter lists [1]. It states no maximum URL length [1].
Should you use hyphens or underscores?
Use hyphens. Google’s page puts it plainly: “We recommend separating words in your URLs, when possible.” [1] It adds that hyphens work better than underscores because they help users and search engines identify the concepts in a URL [1].
The page also lists words run together with no separator, such as /greendress, as a pattern to avoid [1]. A slug like /seo-for-latam-brands passes. A slug like /seo_for_latam_brands or /seoforlatambrands does not.
What happens to accents and the letter ñ in a URL?
Google says characters outside the ASCII range should be percent encoded, while unreserved ASCII characters can stay as they are [1]. Its example shows https://example.com/gem%C3%BCse as recommended and https://example.com/gemüse as not recommended [1].
For Spanish, that means a slug with á, é, í, ó, ú or ñ turns into a string of percent codes in the address bar and in links people copy. The page does not say encoded URLs rank lower. It says this is how they should be written [1].
AEO for LatAm’s recommendation: write Spanish slugs without accents, so the URL stays readable when someone pastes it. Check each slug for words that change meaning without the tilde, such as año and ano, and pick a different word when they do.
Should the URL be in Spanish or English?
Google says to use words in your audience’s language in the URL, and transliterated words where they apply [1]. Its examples include German and Japanese words [1]. For a Spanish page for a Colombian or Mexican reader, that points to a Spanish slug. For the English version aimed at a US buyer, the slug should be in English.
This is why the same slug translated word for word rarely works. A Spanish title such as “Cómo vender en EE. UU.” becomes /como-vender-en-eeuu, and the English page gets its own slug, written for the English query.
How should a bilingual site organize its URLs?
Google’s page says that if your site is multi-regional, you should consider a URL structure that makes it easy to geotarget the site [1]. It shows two recommended patterns: a country-specific domain such as example.de, and a country-specific subdirectory on a generic domain such as example.com/de/ [1]. The page does not discuss subdomains or language prefixes beyond that German example.
AEO for LatAm’s recommendation, with an example: a Colombian apparel exporter selling to US boutiques keeps one domain and puts the Spanish pages under /es/ and the English pages under /en/. That mirrors the subdirectory pattern Google shows, and it lets the team audit each language by folder.
What else on the page affects a small site?
Two rules catch many small sites. First, URLs are case sensitive: Google treats /APPLE and /apple as distinct URLs with their own content [1]. Second, session IDs and other parameters that do not change the content should be removed where possible [1].
A 20-minute check you can run this week:
Export your URL list from your CMS or from Google Search Console.
Search it for underscores, spaces, capital letters and accented characters.
Fix the slugs you can change, and keep a redirect list so old links reach the new pages.
Check that every Spanish page has a Spanish slug and every English page has an English one.
Record the date, so you can compare the count next month.
The Technical Foundation pillar of the AEO for LatAm Blueprint checks that AI crawlers can find, read and understand your site, and clean URLs are part of that audit.
FAQ
Do hyphens or underscores matter for Google ranking? Google says it recommends hyphens over underscores to help users and search engines identify concepts in a URL [1]. The page does not claim a ranking boost. Treat it as a readability and crawl clarity rule, and fix it when you build or rename pages, not as a reason to rewrite a whole site.
Can I use ñ or accents in my slugs? Google’s page says non-ASCII characters should be percent encoded and lists the unencoded version as not recommended [1]. AEO for LatAm’s recommendation is to drop accents from slugs. Check each word first, because a few Spanish words change meaning without the tilde.
Should the English and Spanish pages share one slug? Google tells you to use words in your audience’s language in the URL [1], so each language gets its own slug. Keep a shared internal translation ID in your CMS if you need to link the two pages together, and leave that ID out of the URL itself.
Does Google limit URL length? The page states no maximum length [1]. It warns that complex URLs with many parameters can cause crawl problems and says to trim parameters that do not change the content [1]. Keep slugs short because people read and copy them.
Does case matter in a URL? Yes. Google’s page says it treats /APPLE and /apple as distinct URLs with their own content [1]. Use lowercase for every slug, and make sure your server redirects uppercase versions to the lowercase page, so one page has one address.
Run a Quick-Start Blueprint on your domain.
References
Google Search Central. “URL structure best practices for Google Search.” Google for Developers documentation, “Last updated 2026-10-21 UTC” per the page footer. Opened November 10, 2026 (two separate fetches). https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure