---
title: URL segment and SEO URI
slug: commerce-connect-15/docs/url-segment-and-seo-uri
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-07-30T20:34:43.000Z
---

## SEO URI

The SEO URI must be globally unique across all products, categories, and languages.

## Name in URL

Use the **Name in URL** field (also known as URL or URI segment, or route segment) to build hierarchical URLs, such as `example.com/en/catalog/category/subcategory/product`. The same **Name in URL** can repeat across language branches because the language branch is part of the path or host. **Name in URL** has the following constraints:

- For products and variants, the **Name in URL** must be globally unique (within a language).
- For categories, the **Name in URL** must be unique within the same parent category.

## Configure less strict validation of Name in URL

To loosen the **Name in URL** constraints for products and variants so that they match the constraint for categories, set the `episerver:commerce.UseLessStrictEntryUriSegmentValidation` app setting to `true`. See also the blog post [Increased flexibility in Commerce Connect catalog URLs](https://world.optimizely.com/blogs/Magnus-Rahl/Dates/2018/1/increased-flexibility-in-commerce-catalog-urls/).

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
Commerce Connect validates uniqueness when a product or variant is published. If you later move or link products or variants between categories, a conflict can occur where two items share the same hierarchical URL under the same parent. The behavior of the conflicting URL is undefined.
:::

## Detect conflicts in hierarchical URLs

The **Find Catalog Uri Conflicts** scheduled job scans the database for products, variants, and categories that share the same **Name in URL** under the same parent category. When the job finds conflicts, it logs them as warnings, writes them to the scheduled job log, and emails the recipients listed in the `episerver:commerce.UriSegmentConflictsEmailRecipients` app setting. Separate multiple email addresses with a semicolon (;).

## Allowed characters in URL

Use Unicode characters in a URL segment or an SEO URI for catalog content.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/W1C67wlCutGnbHLaexxaq-20260723-094555.png)

The front end also supports Unicode URLs.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/OmOPgtFCxpGDGcux4AQai-20260723-094555.png)

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/BrbvVORKJ5iIeSMZye5kI/zOyS6TRtKnuIhF64QX9nA-20260723-094555.png)

## Configure Unicode support

By default, Optimizely allows only the characters listed in [RFC 1738](https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1738):

- Alphabetic characters
- Numeric characters
- The following special characters:
  - Dash (`-`)
  - Underscore (`_`)
  - Tilde (`~`)
  - Period (`.`)
  - Dollar sign (`$`)

To configure Unicode support, see [Internationalized resource identifiers](docId\:BSkOTMD8MTxqY3dCIM9SB).