Trailing Forward Slash Behind URLs

[Aminka Ozmun]

Hi, Smart People!

I'm confused about yet another thing....

What's up with the trailing forward slashes behind URLs?? Are they necessary??? I've come across contrary opinions (of course)....

I'm specifically concerned over how that relates to SEO.


THANKS!

[Curtis2011]

Can you post an example? I'm not sure what you're talking about.

[aussieNickuss]

Do you mean something like: Google/ as opposed to Google ??

If so and as far as I know, trailing slashes don't affect SEO in any way.

[Aminka Ozmun]

What aussieNickuss thought, Curtis!

I've read opinions saying it doesn't matter and opinions that claim it does and I still don't get what the fuss is over and why these trailing slashes even exist....

[chadcharlie]

I think it's a moot detail. Shouldn't affect SEO in the same sense that the trailing semi-colon doesn't affect CSS in the last attribute. Test it. Do a link search on Google for the link with the trailing slash, and then without. If Google is giving you the same number of results, in the same exact order, it's not affecting your SEO.

I do understand the devil is in the details, but some of the very very small "SEO" concerns are really not worth being concerned about unless you have all the amazing content in the world that you or anyone could possibly handle.

[chadcharlie]

Originally Posted by Aminka Ozmun

What aussieNickuss thought, Curtis!

I've read opinions saying it doesn't matter and opinions that claim it does and I still don't get what the fuss is over and why these trailing slashes even exist....

The URL is both a translation of ip address through the web, and also an indication of file location on the (your) server. So trailing slashes imply that there is more to path to, other "pages" to the site, ect. That's all there is to it. You wouldn't see a trailing slash after a file extension like homesite.com/thisdirectory/sitepage.html But the URL homesite.com/thisdirectory and homesite.com/thisdirectory/ are both valid browser destinations. ...assuming there is an index.html (or equivalent) in that directory on the server.

[chadcharlie]

Because we talked about this, I've been observing it, and I am definitively on one side of the fence now. The host and publishing platform I use for my site has always been on the leading edge of its SEO readiness, and I just noticed that they were adding the trailing slash to all our pages now.

I went to a blog that started a long time ago and noticed that she doesn't have them...but she has 1.5million Twitter followers so I'm sure she's not worried about SEO dooce.com

Someone who would be up to speed on SEO and implement new changes would be AListApart.com and they are using the trailing slash. I lean toward emulating those that are dominating their field, so I would go with the trailing slash. If it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. If it does, you've got it there

[Aminka Ozmun]

That's a good point of consideration, chadcharlie: If the possibilities are simply benefit versus no benefit and industry leaders do it, and then there's no harm in emulating them!