Build links to site.com or site.com/ - Is there a difference?

[Alex Barboza]

Hi SEO experts. I have a queston that I seem not to find an answer by Googling it. Is there a difference between mysite.com and mysite.com/?

Will it affect my linkbuilding efforts if I link to one version or the other? I have the SEO Ultimate plugin set to auto link to some of my urls and it always adds the / symbol at the end.

Thanks for your help

[ezzypro]

I would recommend that you stick with building links to mysite.com/

In reality though, it doesn't matter all that much, as long as you are consistent with whichever URL you choose to link to.

[Alex Barboza]

Originally Posted by ezzypro

In reality though, it doesn't matter all that much, as long as you are consistent with whichever URL you choose to link to.

So this means that there's a difference between the two?

[JSProjects]

Originally Posted by Alex Barboza

So this means that there's a difference between the two?

I know you want to remain consistent. Ex, there's a difference between www and non-www. Though I have never PERSONALLY tested this. I've always just stuck with one link and used it throughout my entire backlinking campaign for that link.

[Ben K]

Every character matters in url . It is safe to be consistent with one version when you build links.

[RyanJohnson]

Actually, if you think about this LOGICALLY, it is opposite of what many people here say...

Personally, this isn't an "issue" that I would worry about too much but since it has been asked...

INCONSISTENCY in how links are built will look more natural to the search engines.

Think about it... do you really think that EVERY other site that would naturally link to your site would all structure their links the same way? No.

Some webmasters will make it h ttp://mysite.com some will make it h ttp://mysite.com/ some will make it h ttp://www.mysite.com some will make it h ttp://www.mysite.com/

So the point is, if you build all of your links EXACTLY the same, do you think that will look natural to search engines?

[ezzypro]

As far as link building goes, mysite.com and mysite.com/ are COMPLETELY separate.

If you built 200 links to mysite.com, and 100 other backlinks to mysite.com/, then you would NOT have 300 total links to your homepage. Each url has a completely different backlinks count, as far as Google is concerned. And since mysite.com has more backlinks, that is the url Google would most likely include in their search results.

However, that being said, other than backlink count, mysite.com and mysite.com/ have no other SEO benefits or disadvantages. So as long as you stick with linking to one of them, you will be just fine.

[Alex Barboza]

Originally Posted by RyanJohnson

So the point is, if you build all of your links EXACTLY the same, do you think that will look natural to search engines?

Thanks. This makes sense.

[trustumar]

As far as i know at root domain level it does not matter. This post may answer your question, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: To slash or not to slash

[Cosmit]

Alex, don't worry about it. Your links, www or no www, will get redirected by wordpress. If you don't have wordpress simply do a 301 using HTAccess. It will not affect your rankings.

Don't waste your time over little things like this in my opinion.

[webdevpro]

Using trailing slash at the end is generally favorable as it denotes as a directory rather than a file. For the root domain using or not using '/' will create no problem but better to be consistent and stuck by the default value which is '/' at the end.

[LinkingService]

Check the below video. Might be helpful in getting answer to your question. youtube.com/watch?v=CTrdP7lJ2HU

[wahidswebgarage]

Use mysite.com/, slash / represents that its a directory.Use slashes on categories as well.If you are using wordpress use yoast plugin this will handle almost everything

[Alex Barboza]

Great answers guys. So I shouldn't be very concerned about this. Thanks a lot!

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by ezzypro

Each url has a completely different backlinks count, as far as Google is concerned. And since mysite.com has more backlinks, that is the url Google would most likely include in their search results.

Your server (most servers) will be redirecting everyone to domain.com/ (including Google) so no, it won't affect what goes in the index. The subdomain (www) is a different story and can cause confusion :: to Google :: if a redirect isn't setup correctly.

You should add the trailing slash where possible though as it removes the redirect required by the server. Google should handle it fine but may not credit it as highly as a well formed URL.