diff --git a/linkcheck/url.py b/linkcheck/url.py
index b30a23ec..2322cd76 100644
--- a/linkcheck/url.py
+++ b/linkcheck/url.py
@@ -350,11 +350,14 @@ def url_norm (url, encoding=None):
         urlparts[2] = url_fix_wayback_query(urlparts[2]) # unencode colon in http[s]:// in wayback path
     urlparts[4] = url_quote_part(urlparts[4], safechars="!$&'()*+,-./;=?@_~", encoding=encoding) # anchor
     res = urlunsplit(urlparts)
-    if url.endswith('#') and not urlparts[4]:
+    if decode_for_unquote(url).endswith('#') and not urlparts[4]:
         # re-append trailing empty fragment
         res += '#'
     if encode_unicode:
-        res = unicode(res)
+        try:
+            res = unicode(res)
+        except NameError:
+            pass
     return (res, is_idn)