Even though I have been using them for many years, there are many myths and confusion about the topic of accented domains for websites, including ñ or diaeresis/tréma/umlaut. I have not only used accented domains for my own websites. I have also done so for client websites too. Some of the initial objections include: “But nobody will type it properly,” and more. That is until they learn how to do it right and make it foolproof. Ahead are some examples.

Above, I discussed this topic recently in my CapicúaFM show (in Castilian) and will be discussing it soon in English in BeyondPodcasting.

How do you do it right and make it foolproof?

It’s actually quite simple: Always buy the pair of both the accented and unaccented domain, and program the unaccented one to redirect (forward) to the accented one. That way, even when people type the doman without the accent mark, diaeresis/tréma/umlaut or ñ, they still get to the right place and the desired characters pop up in the browser like magic. It’s kind of like auto-correct for your own accented domain, when you know that about 99% of the people are going to type it without the special characters: It just works, and you only pay to host one website, not two, since only the domain has to be redirected.

Here are a few examples:

• If you type in AllanTepper.soy it will instantly redirect to AllanTépper.soy
• If you type in Laconspiraciondelcastellano.com (a landing page for one of my recent books) it will instantly direct to Laconspiracióndelcastellano.com
• If you type in ElgatoqueselecoloaColon.com it will instantly redirect to ElgatoqueselecolóaColón. (This is a mini book from a author client and a play on words too.)

Here are of examples of brands and companies that I can’t believe haven’t done this yet:

• Bacardí
• ElPeriódico
• Nescafé
• Nestlé
• Telefónica

There are many more.

Doesn’t it come out like garbage characters in the browser?

That used to happen many years ago —under certain circumstances— before the popular browsers matured in this respect. Previously, the browsers did that in an attempt to avoid phishing. Fortunately, the current version of popular browsers no longer do this in my personal experience and tests, at least when we are talking about the ñ or accented vowels from the Castilian alphabet like á, é, í, ó, ú and ü. The last one is not an accent mark but a diaeresis/tréma/umlaut and is used with nouns like antigüedad (antiquity) or pingüino (penguin), municipalities like Mayagüez (in Puerto Rico) or demonyms like nicaragüense (Nicaraguan). The accented domains I mentioned earlier now display perfectly when the website uses forced HTTPS (a Google requirement since 2014 for other reasons, see my 2016 related article) in all modern popular browsers, even in the United States with a computer and browser factory set only for US English. (Many years ago, the browser used to display it in ugly Punycode and would warn about potential phishing and suggested adding an additional language before it would show it the attractive human way. Fortunately, that’s something from the past with the situations I described.)

Isn’t it complex to order?

Indeed it is with many domain registrars, which is why I recently created AccentedDomains.com to make it easy for people.

Simultaneously, I also created DominiosTildados.com in Castilian. With this service, you are not required to make many any convoluted conversion to Punycode to place an order: You can either type it as desired or (if you don’t have the capability of typing it the way you want it) you can type it and describe it. For example, if you wanted a name like MónicaStreamingService.com but don’t have the capability of typing the accent mark, you can type it in as MonicaStreamingService.com and in the notes write: “I would like the Monica name with the accent mark on the o.”

Some other examples might be if you wanted a name like LivePiñataStreaming.com or PiñaColadasDelivered.com.

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FTC disclosure

Allan Tépper’s TecnoTur LLC owns the services described in the article: AccentedDomains.com and DominiosTildados.com and they are service marks of TecnoTur LLC.

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