Ever since IDN domains appeared, the question has been asked daily: Is it good or bad to use Å, Ä and Ö in the name?
IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Names and refers to domains that contain characters other than the standardized A–Z, 0–9 and hyphen. For Swedes, this primarily means that Å, Ä and Ö can now be used, but there are many other characters that also work.
When IDN domains first appeared, it was difficult for browsers and email clients to handle them, and quite a few online platforms did not accept them when you were expected to enter a web address. They can be rewritten, and there are plenty of online tools for that if you don’t know how. For example, Bråth.se would look like this: xn--brth-roa.se
How do IDN domains work in search results?
Today, almost all browsers and other applications can handle IDN domains. Google does too.
We’ve seen really good results for domains where the IDN version is the exact keyword, for example Ångbåt.se. Despite this, many still choose to use the internationalized variants, with A, A and O instead of Å, Ä and Ö. We ourselves chose to go with Brath spelled with an A, and the domain name did play a role, although the main reason was the large number of international clients we work with.
For SEO in Sweden, I would argue that using internationalized domains is purely a matter of tradition. There’s no actual need for it today—it’s simply that people are used to rewriting Swedish words in that way.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.