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Missing Character Encoding: How to Fix It
The character encoding tells the browser how to turn bytes into letters. UTF-8 supports every language.
Quick fix: Add <meta charset="utf-8"> as the first tag inside <head> to avoid broken characters.
Why it matters for SEO
Without it, browsers can show broken characters (like é instead of é), which looks unprofessional and can confuse search engines.
How to fix it
- 1Add <meta charset="utf-8"> as the very first tag inside <head>.
- 2Make sure your files and database are saved as UTF-8.
- 3Optionally send Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 from the server.
Example
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
...
</head>Free tools to fix it
Frequently asked questions
Should charset be first in the head?
Yes. It must appear within the first 1024 bytes of the page.
Which encoding should I use?
UTF-8. It is the web standard and supports all languages.
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