Does Trade Mark in URL matter to Google

[b.digi]

Hello community!

We are planning to clean up TM and R in the URLs on the website.  Google has indexed these pages but some TM pages are have " " " instead displaying in URL from SERP.    What's your thoughts on a "spring cleaning" effort to remove all TM and R and other unsafe characters in URLs?  Will this impact indexed pages and ranking etc?

Thank you!

b.dig

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi,

This might impact your ranking, so you need to make sure if you rewrite the URLs for a page that you redirect the old URL to the new one to make sure you pass all the link juice and users to the new one. This should in most cases make sure that your rankings will remain the same as you pass all the authority to the new ones. If you don't do this than you probably will have to build up your rankings from the ground for these URLs.

[JaneCopland]

Hi there,

Is there any way you might be able to show us an example of this? Could be easier to spot if there is a problem.

In general, you want to avoid going through 301 redirects if you don't have to. You should be able to maintain your rankings / authority from one URL to another when it is redirected properly but there are no guarantees. It's best to avoid doing it at all unless it's really necessary.

[b.digi]

Thank you both.  The URLs with TM are indexed by Google with TM in it, I suspect it will have impact on ranking if we simply remove the TM from URL, although nothing else changes.  301 is a protection, to certain extent.

Happy Easter.

b.dig