When it comes to SEO-friendly URLs and content, knowing which characters to use and avoid is crucial for better rankings. I'll break down the essential guidelines to help you optimize your content effectively.

Safe Characters to Use:

Letters (a-z, A-Z)
Numbers (0-9)
Hyphens (-)
Periods (.)
Forward slashes (/)
Underscores (_)

Characters to Avoid:

Spaces
Special characters (@, #, $, %, &, *)
Question marks (?)
Equals signs (=)
Plus signs (+)
Ampersands (&)
Exclamation marks (!)
Quotation marks (" ")
Brackets ([ ], { }, < >)

Best Practices for URL Structure:

1. Use hyphens to separate words instead of underscores or spaces
2. Keep URLs lowercase
3. Remove unnecessary stop words (a, an, the, but, or)
4. Use ASCII characters only
5. Keep URLs short and descriptive

For meta titles and descriptions:

Avoid special characters that could break HTML rendering
Use only standard punctuation marks (periods, commas, colons)
Stick to UTF-8 encoded characters when necessary

When writing content:

Use standard alphanumeric characters
Include necessary punctuation marks
Avoid emojis in crucial SEO elements
Use special characters only when absolutely necessary for meaning

Remember that while some special characters might display correctly in browsers, they can cause issues with:

URL encoding
Search engine crawling
Site migrations
Cross-browser compatibility
Server configurations

By following these guidelines, you'll ensure your content is easily readable by both search engines and users, while maintaining optimal SEO performance across all platforms and devices.

For international SEO:

Use standard Latin characters where possible
Implement proper language tags
Consider URL internationalization standards
Use appropriate character encoding

Keep in mind that search engines are becoming more sophisticated in handling various characters, but sticking to these basic principles will help avoid potential technical issues and ensure consistent performance across different platforms and search engines.

Remember to regularly audit your content for any problematic characters that might have been introduced through copy-pasting or content management system quirks. This will help maintain clean, SEO-friendly URLs and content across your entire website.

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