Ever since IDN domains appeared, one question has kept coming up. Are characters outside the basic Latin set good or bad in a domain name?
What an IDN domain is
IDN stands for Internationalised Domain Names. These are domains that can include characters beyond the standard A Z, 0 9 and hyphens. The format supports a wide range of characters from many languages and writing systems. The idea is simple. Internet addresses should be able to reflect real words and names without being limited to English only.
When IDN domains were introduced
Work on IDN support began early in the history of the internet but the technology was not standardised until the early 2000s. Around 2003 the first top level domains began adding support and the first public registrations soon followed.
How the technology works
IDN domains rely on an encoding system called Punycode. This converts the domain into a form that the DNS can handle while still allowing users to type and see native characters. For example, a domain containing special characters would be stored in Punycode as something like:
xn--brth-roa.com
When IDN domains first launched, support across browsers, email clients and online platforms was limited. Many systems could not accept them in forms or input fields and users often avoided them even though the technology was available.
How IDN domains perform in search results
Today almost all browsers and applications handle IDN domains without issues. Google does as well.
IDN domains in Google search
We have seen strong performance for domains where the IDN version matches the exact search term in the target language. Still, many choose an ASCII only version of the name to avoid potential confusion among international users.
IDN domains from an SEO perspective
From a modern SEO standpoint there is no technical reason to avoid IDN domains. Search engines handle them reliably. The choice often comes down to user expectations, brand recognition and how international the audience is.
Punycoder is a handy tool to convert IDN domains to Punycode.
