Paste your URL-encoded text below to convert it back to human-readable format.
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What is URL Decoding?
URL decoding, also known as Percent-decoding, is the process of converting an encoded Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) back into its original, readable format. When data is sent over the internet via a URL, certain characters are “encoded” because they have special meanings or are not allowed in URLs. This encoding replaces the special character with a percent sign (%) followed by two hexadecimal digits that represent the character’s value.
URL decoding reverses this process, making the URL or its parameters human-readable and usable by applications. It’s the direct opposite of URL Encoding.
How URL Decoding Works: A Deeper Dive
The decoding mechanism is straightforward but crucial for web communication. It specifically targets percent-encoded sequences and translates them back into the characters they represent, typically using the UTF-8 character set for broad compatibility.
The Decoding Process Explained
- Scan for Percent Sign: The decoder scans the input string for a percent sign (
%). - Read Hexadecimal Value: It reads the two characters immediately following the
%. These characters represent a hexadecimal number (e.g.,20in%20). - Convert to Character: The hexadecimal value is converted into its corresponding byte. This byte is then interpreted as a character according to a specific character set, almost always UTF-8 in modern web applications.
- Replace and Repeat: The original percent-encoded sequence (e.g.,
%20) is replaced with the resulting character (a space). The process continues until the entire string is scanned.
Common Encoded Characters: Quick Reference
Here is a list of commonly encountered percent-encoded characters and their decoded values. This is useful for quickly interpreting URL parameters and log files.
%20%22%23%24%26%2B%2C%2F%3A%3B%3D%3FThe Critical Role of URL Decoding in SEO
While often seen as a technical task, URL decoding is a fundamental skill for any serious SEO professional. Search engines prefer clean, understandable URLs, but the data SEOs work with is often messy and encoded. Decoding is the key to unlocking valuable insights.
Analyzing Competitor URL Structures
When you export backlink data from tools like Ahrefs or Semrush, URLs with special characters or parameters are often encoded. To understand a competitor’s page structure or keyword targeting in slugs, you must first decode these URLs.
Log File Analysis for Technical SEO
Server log files are a goldmine of information about how search engine bots crawl your website. A URL decoder is essential for an SEO to analyze these files, accurately identify which pages are being crawled, and understand bot behavior.
URL Decoding in Practice: Code Examples
Most modern programming languages provide built-in functions to handle URL decoding. Here’s how you can decode a string in several popular languages.
JavaScript
In JavaScript, use the global decodeURIComponent() function. It’s the most robust method for decoding URI components.
const encoded = 'search%20terms%26filter%3Dtrue';
const decoded = decodeURIComponent(encoded);
console.log(decoded); // "search terms&filter=true"Python
Python’s urllib.parse library includes the unquote() function.
from urllib.parse import unquote
encoded_string = 'search%20terms%26filter%3Dtrue'
decoded_string = unquote(encoded_string)
print(decoded_string) # "search terms&filter=true"Frequently Asked Questions
URL decoding is the process of converting percent-encoded characters in a URL back to their original form. For example, converting “%20” back to a space. This is done because URLs can only contain a specific set of characters, so special ones must be encoded for safe transmission.
You should use a URL decoder for tasks like reading complex URLs, debugging web applications, analyzing web server logs, processing form data from a GET request, investigating security threats, and understanding competitor SEO strategies.
Yes, it is 100% secure. All decoding happens locally within your web browser using JavaScript. Your URLs and data are never sent to our or any other server, ensuring complete privacy.
URL decoding handles percent-encoded sequences (like %20 for a space). HTML decoding handles HTML entities (like < for the < symbol). They are used in different contexts: URL decoding for web addresses and HTML decoding for web page content.
In older URL encoding schemes, a plus sign (+) was used to represent a space character, especially in query strings. Modern standards prefer %20, but both are valid. Our tool correctly decodes both + and %20 into a space for maximum compatibility.
The replacement character (�) appears when the decoder encounters an invalid byte sequence for the expected character set (UTF-8). This usually means the original text was encoded incorrectly or used a different, incompatible character set.
Both are JavaScript functions. `decodeURI()` does not decode reserved characters like : / ? & = #. `decodeURIComponent()` decodes everything. Our tool uses `decodeURIComponent()` because users typically want to decode all parts of a URL or string they paste.
Absolutely. It's perfect for API work. You can quickly decode query parameters or parts of a request body sent from a client to see the raw data your API is receiving, which is crucial for debugging.
Using our tool to decode it is safe, as it only reveals the text. However, the decoded content itself could be malicious (e.g., a JavaScript link for a Cross-Site Scripting attack). Never click links or run code from a decoded string if you don't trust the source.
No, there is nothing to install. This is a fully browser-based tool. It works on any modern device (desktop, tablet, mobile) with an internet browser, with no plugins or extensions required.