when building back links to 1 url, is http://site different to, http://www.site

[thedog]

I'm pretty sure this is the case, but just need to clarify it.

If I'm building backlinks, my url I'm linking needs to be exactly the same each time.

Example, these 3 are all different...

http://site.com
http://www.site.com
http://www.site.com/

I need to stick with just one, correct?

[tx138]

Yes, the same goes for site.com/index.html or any other combination that you can come up with. Build your backlinks to just one form of the domain.

[jerytohn]

Originally Posted by thedog

I'm pretty sure this is the case, but just need to clarify it.

If I'm building backlinks, my url I'm linking needs to be exactly the same each time.

Example, these 3 are all different...

http://site.com
http://www.site.com
http://www.site.com/

I need to stick with just one, correct?

Wait a minute ... you mean the 2nd and third ones are different? and Google actually can't tell them apart or something?

[rahmanpaidar]

Not only the they are different but also the pages name are case sensitive in the eyes of search engines regardless of which hosting plan you use (Windows or Linux/Apache)

One more note: http://www.yoursite[dot]com and http://www.yoursite[dot]com/index.htm are two different url even if they be phisically the same. Google and most major search engines will treat them as two seperate url.

[thedog]

That's what I thought... I've been using a monthly seo service, just got a report back from my first campaign...

I gave them the url http://www.site.com/

and the url they used for the backlinks is http://site.com

I've been link building using my url... I just wanted to double check here... they've made a mistake... I'm not missing anything here, I mean, is there any reason why they would use a different url to the one I gave them?

The thing is, I've a few other monthly campaigns with them... if they use the same structure is this bad?

[rahmanpaidar]

Originally Posted by thedog

That's what I thought... I've been using a monthly seo service, just got a report back from my first campaign...

I gave them the url http://www.site.com/

and the url they used for the backlinks is http://site.com

I've been link building using my url... I just wanted to double check here... they've made a mistake... I'm not missing anything here, I mean, is there any reason why they would use a different url to the one I gave them?

The thing is, I've a few other monthly campaigns with them... if they use the same structure is this bad?

Can't say anything for sure. Every SEO Company has their skill and tricks and they might have reasons to what they do. The best is to consult them on this subject and explain them your concern.

[intelinside]

Google treat www, non-www differently but to be on safe side, use .htaccess on your site to redirect the site to your preferred method (www or non-www). You can also specify this option in Google Webmasters tools.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by thedog

That's what I thought... I've been using a monthly seo service, just got a report back from my first campaign...

I gave them the url http://www.site.com/

and the url they used for the backlinks is http://site.com

I've been link building using my url... I just wanted to double check here... they've made a mistake... I'm not missing anything here, I mean, is there any reason why they would use a different url to the one I gave them?

The thing is, I've a few other monthly campaigns with them... if they use the same structure is this bad?

Hi thedog,

Yes, your so called "seo service" made a big mistake. You should ask them for some sort of compensation for their screw up (assuming you have evidence that proves they made the error). Perhaps they will try to make it right.

In the meantime you should try to mitigate the damage by setting up 301 Permanent Redirects and add the link element to your pages where you specify the preferred canonical.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by jerytohn

Wait a minute ... you mean the 2nd and third ones are different? and Google actually can't tell them apart or something?

Hi jerytohn,

Yes, Google can tell them apart and therefore they do treat them as 2 different URLs. Since it is technically possible for a web server to serve different content if the trailing slash is left off, Google properly treats them as different and unique URLs.