Comments on: Why storing URLs with truncated trailing slashes is an utterly idiocy http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/ If you've read my articles somewhere on the Internet, expect something different here. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:16:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Brian http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2261 Brian Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:01:46 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2261 Giuseppe said: It doesn’t matter what’s cool and what’s not, fashion of the day changes, well, everyday. What’s important (and you haven’t addressed it) is the fact that people can link to your URL with or without the trailing slash. And since Google doesn’t give you full recognition for a link that points to a 301 you want to make sure your site returns 200 for URL with AND without slash. That is exactly what happen to my site, being dropped off the Google index because of an automatically added slash (and all of my links don’t have slashes) ======================= Is this true?? Giuseppe said:
It doesn’t matter what’s cool and what’s not, fashion of the day changes, well, everyday.

What’s important (and you haven’t addressed it) is the fact that people can link to your URL with or without the trailing slash.
And since Google doesn’t give you full recognition for a link that points to a 301 you want to make sure your site returns 200 for URL with AND without slash.

That is exactly what happen to my site, being dropped off the Google index because of an automatically added slash (and all of my links don’t have slashes)
=======================

Is this true??

]]> By: Stephen http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2260 Stephen Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:48:18 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2260 Hello Sebastian. I never thought I would come across an article so pertinent to my long-held secret: I've always had a problem with "trailing" slashes. Im not an expert but I always understood that our root index page should be expressed as: http://wwww.example.com/ for instance. And that made sense, and I have tried to use that. Over the years though, I have found that many site submission companies would not accept this format. To make a long story short, I began designing various iterations of my site by using the following base href: http://www.example.com (i.e. no trailing slash). So as a result of that, I have always written links to internal directories in what I now assume is an incorrect format, as so: /MedwordStore/index.html. I preface internal links with the forward slash since the base reference doesn't include one. I suppose I could change the base href in each directory to minimize the size of actual written links under each directory. I also work on our virtual server sometimes and, I may be wrong, but I thought the rule was that those directories are to be finished without a trailing slash? Do I have any chance of redemption? Can I change my wrong-thinking and still make bad web designs? :-) [301 is your friend] Hello Sebastian.

I never thought I would come across an article so pertinent to my long-held secret: I’ve always had a problem with “trailing” slashes. Im not an expert but I always understood that our root index page should be expressed as: http://wwww.example.com/ for instance. And that made sense, and I have tried to use that. Over the years though, I have found that many site submission companies would not accept this format. To make a long story short, I began designing various iterations of my site by using the following base href: http://www.example.com (i.e. no trailing slash). So as a result of that, I have always written links to internal directories in what I now assume is an incorrect format, as so: /MedwordStore/index.html. I preface internal links with the forward slash since the base reference doesn’t include one. I suppose I could change the base href in each directory to minimize the size of actual written links under each directory. I also work on our virtual server sometimes and, I may be wrong, but I thought the rule was that those directories are to be finished without a trailing slash?

Do I have any chance of redemption? Can I change my wrong-thinking and still make bad web designs? :-)

[301 is your friend]

]]> By: Links: Por Que uma Barra Faz Diferença? - Linka - SEO, links patrocinados e SEM http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1779 Links: Por Que uma Barra Faz Diferença? - Linka - SEO, links patrocinados e SEM Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:57:00 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1779 [...] parar no lugar errado, ou em lugar nenhum. Façamos a analogia dos números de telefone, como fez Sebastian: pense na URL como um número de telefone. Se você discar 3165-2020 terá a pizzaria que [...] […] parar no lugar errado, ou em lugar nenhum. Façamos a analogia dos números de telefone, como fez Sebastian: pense na URL como um número de telefone. Se você discar 3165-2020 terá a pizzaria que […]

]]> By: » Could You Be Damaging Your Own Link Building Strategies? - Scotland SEO Blog http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1777 » Could You Be Damaging Your Own Link Building Strategies? - Scotland SEO Blog Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:01:27 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1777 [...] is an old post on Sebastian’s Pamphlets that has been picked up by Ann Smarty on Search Engine Journal. The question of using exact URLs is [...] […] is an old post on Sebastian’s Pamphlets that has been picked up by Ann Smarty on Search Engine Journal. The question of using exact URLs is […]

]]> By: Linking Issues: Why a Trailing Slash in the URL Does Matter | Search Engine Journal http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1772 Linking Issues: Why a Trailing Slash in the URL Does Matter | Search Engine Journal Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:19:35 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1772 [...] Well, to begin with, if you get such a reply from a web developer, start looking for another one because this answer is profoundly incorrect, to say at least. When it comes to an URL, every single character matters, I like it how Sebastien put it in his totally cool post on stealing the trailing slash from the URL: [...] […] Well, to begin with, if you get such a reply from a web developer, start looking for another one because this answer is profoundly incorrect, to say at least. When it comes to an URL, every single character matters, I like it how Sebastien put it in his totally cool post on stealing the trailing slash from the URL: […]

]]> By: Giuseppe http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1556 Giuseppe Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:22:52 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1556 It doesn't matter what's cool and what's not, fashion of the day changes, well, everyday. What's important (and you haven't addressed it) is the fact that people can link to your URL with or without the trailing slash. And since Google doesn't give you full recognition for a link that points to a 301 you want to make sure your site returns 200 for URL with AND without slash. That is exactly what happen to my site, being dropped off the Google index because of an automatically added slash (and all of my links don't have slashes) If you make a living with a website this is something to take it into consideration. If you just play with it we can discuss what's cool and what's not. It doesn’t matter what’s cool and what’s not, fashion of the day changes, well, everyday.

What’s important (and you haven’t addressed it) is the fact that people can link to your URL with or without the trailing slash.
And since Google doesn’t give you full recognition for a link that points to a 301 you want to make sure your site returns 200 for URL with AND without slash.

That is exactly what happen to my site, being dropped off the Google index because of an automatically added slash (and all of my links don’t have slashes)

If you make a living with a website this is something to take it into consideration.
If you just play with it we can discuss what’s cool and what’s not.

]]> By: Kenpachi http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1304 Kenpachi Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:29:21 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1304 Awesome article! I was recently having issues with my site and Google Sitemaps, Googlebot kept encoutering 302 redirect errors. After some reearch I found that google expects your urls in the sitemap to end with a trailing slash. End story was I had to recode a few parts, and I had to add a slash to the end of every url, since I make heavy use of URL re-writing. I was about to look for a way to make my site "look cool" by having an option for a non-trailing urls, but your article straightened me out :) Awesome article! I was recently having issues with my site and Google Sitemaps, Googlebot kept encoutering 302 redirect errors. After some reearch I found that google expects your urls in the sitemap to end with a trailing slash.

End story was I had to recode a few parts, and I had to add a slash to the end of every url, since I make heavy use of URL re-writing. I was about to look for a way to make my site “look cool” by having an option for a non-trailing urls, but your article straightened me out :)

]]> By: Matt N http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1298 Matt N Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:35:10 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1298 Yeah there is a lot of misunderstanding about URI's when it comes to this department. This W3C document helped me a lot: http://www.w3.org/TR/chips/#uri The thing that stands out to me most (and what most people misunderstand about URI's because of Apache's default configuration) is that a URI IS NOT a filesystem. Apache uses that as a convenient default because it's a 'quick and dirty' way to map URI's to resources on the filesystem. Apache provides many methods for making this mapping other than the filesystem. Modules such as mod_alias, mod_rewrite and mod_negotiation (as well as many others) are much more advanced methods of configuring your server for mapping URI's to resources on the filesystem. The 'redirects that the server does automatically' involving trailing slashes with URI's is actually due to an Apache module called mod_speling. This module is activated in Apache's default install and is one of the causes of this confusion! Yeah there is a lot of misunderstanding about URI’s when it comes to this department. This W3C document helped me a lot:

http://www.w3.org/TR/chips/#uri

The thing that stands out to me most (and what most people misunderstand about URI’s because of Apache’s default configuration) is that a URI IS NOT a filesystem. Apache uses that as a convenient default because it’s a ‘quick and dirty’ way to map URI’s to resources on the filesystem. Apache provides many methods for making this mapping other than the filesystem. Modules such as mod_alias, mod_rewrite and mod_negotiation (as well as many others) are much more advanced methods of configuring your server for mapping URI’s to resources on the filesystem.

The ‘redirects that the server does automatically’ involving trailing slashes with URI’s is actually due to an Apache module called mod_speling. This module is activated in Apache’s default install and is one of the causes of this confusion!

]]> By: Sebastian http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1282 Sebastian Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:23:16 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1282 Tristan, seems you're right, I don't consider developers plain users. As for users navigating the Web in the browser address bar, well, search engines do a great job leading type-in queries to the best matching result, or a SERP. That's a great and useful layer between humans and URIs, and it should get improved further, beyond autocomplete, ajax'ed suggestions and such neat stuff. I strongly believe that users shouldn't deal with URIs at all, I mean that's why we've links with meaningful anchor text. But as long as I can't click a link on my telly or on a placard, type-in traffic exists, albeit it lands at quite exotic and unrelated destinations in many cases. The challenge for developers is to keep users away from URIs wherever possible. Tristan, seems you’re right, I don’t consider developers plain users. As for users navigating the Web in the browser address bar, well, search engines do a great job leading type-in queries to the best matching result, or a SERP. That’s a great and useful layer between humans and URIs, and it should get improved further, beyond autocomplete, ajax’ed suggestions and such neat stuff.

I strongly believe that users shouldn’t deal with URIs at all, I mean that’s why we’ve links with meaningful anchor text. But as long as I can’t click a link on my telly or on a placard, type-in traffic exists, albeit it lands at quite exotic and unrelated destinations in many cases. The challenge for developers is to keep users away from URIs wherever possible.

]]> By: Tristan http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1281 Tristan Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:53:57 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-1281 I think our problem here is that we're talking about different things. I'm talking about users typing in URIs and you're talking about links and references created by developers or applications. From a user's point of view when typing the URI the slash is meaningless (since the content is the same in 99% of cases) and that will never change, nor should it ever, since it's in a server's best interest to allow both. From a machine's perspective, it's best to have a single canonical URI. Thus, redirects for the users and slashes for the machines. Best of both worlds. So, we were on completely different tracks... sorry for the confusion, I thought it was clear I was talking about users. But if you go back to what you wrote here.... "Tristan, when a user has to see an URI (on the Interweb) and can click it, it should be the canonical URI. If a user has to read or hear an URI (elsewhere) and is supposed to remember it, it should be as short as possible. The machines populating todays Web aren’t smart enough to deal with “offline inputs”." --- That I agree with completely and let's leave it at that. I was just interested in discussing deeper issues of human-centric issues around URI and their "correct" behavior, but apparently you aren't. I think our problem here is that we’re talking about different things. I’m talking about users typing in URIs and you’re talking about links and references created by developers or applications. From a user’s point of view when typing the URI the slash is meaningless (since the content is the same in 99% of cases) and that will never change, nor should it ever, since it’s in a server’s best interest to allow both. From a machine’s perspective, it’s best to have a single canonical URI. Thus, redirects for the users and slashes for the machines. Best of both worlds.

So, we were on completely different tracks… sorry for the confusion, I thought it was clear I was talking about users.

But if you go back to what you wrote here…. “Tristan, when a user has to see an URI (on the Interweb) and can click it, it should be the canonical URI. If a user has to read or hear an URI (elsewhere) and is supposed to remember it, it should be as short as possible. The machines populating todays Web aren’t smart enough to deal with “offline inputs”.”
— That I agree with completely and let’s leave it at that. I was just interested in discussing deeper issues of human-centric issues around URI and their “correct” behavior, but apparently you aren’t.

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