Does the backslash matter?

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9
When otimizing a website with backlinks does it matter if you include the "/" at the end of the url when optimizing the website?

I.E. http://yoursitehere.com/

Does it matter if I use: http://yoursitehere.com and take off the "/" at the end?


I've read all over WF that most prefer to take out www. and just start with http:// Or just pick one or the other... But I'm not sure about the backslash.

Anyone know?
#search engine optimization #backslash #matter
  • Sometimes when i check the backlinks for a url with and without backslash, the amount can be very different. SO i think backslash is matter sometimes
    • [1] reply
  • It doesn't matter, just so you pick one way of doing it and be consistent with it. The search engines actually consider the domain with the slash and without the slash as two different pages, even though they point to the same page. If you use both, it divides the incoming link juice. You can use a 301 redirect so that all the link juice gets counted toward one version of your link.

    These domains:

    HTML Code:
    http://domain.com
http://domain.com/
http://domain.com/index.html
http://www.domain.com
http://www.domain.com/
http://www.domain.com/index.html
    ...all point to the same page, but the search engines see them as six different pages. That's why it's important to be consistent with your backlinking. Of course, you can use a 301 redirect to point them all to one version and you're safe no matter how others link to your site.
    • [1] reply
    • Very well explained. Thank you Dennis
  • What's funny, is that for some backlinks I actually have 2 different backlinks, both showing in yahoo site explorer, both for the same link.

    one, is with the slash, one is without the slash.

    These all relate to forum profiles that I "boosted" with sean donahoe's backlink booster. It seems that the links that I boosted had the "/" in them. Well, the forum profiles typically register without the "/", so for some of the links I now have 2 backlinks both showing up
  • It doesn't matter just be consistent.
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