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. Wed, 23 May 2012 06:41:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Bozho's tech blog » Pretty URLs and the trailing slash http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2899 Bozho's tech blog » Pretty URLs and the trailing slash Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:48:34 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2899 [...] This article explains the matter in more details. Note however that it advocates retaining the trailing slash, but it doesn’t focus on pretty urls in particular. Yes, you should retain the trailing slash for your index page and for any directories, but that’s it. The rest are resources and so they should not have the slash. The main point is that you must be consistent. From the practical point of view it is not that wrong to retain the slash (although it contradicts the directory structure logic), but have it for every resource, and have all your links conform to that choice. [...] […] This article explains the matter in more details. Note however that it advocates retaining the trailing slash, but it doesn’t focus on pretty urls in particular. Yes, you should retain the trailing slash for your index page and for any directories, but that’s it. The rest are resources and so they should not have the slash. The main point is that you must be consistent. From the practical point of view it is not that wrong to retain the slash (although it contradicts the directory structure logic), but have it for every resource, and have all your links conform to that choice. […]

]]> By: BlueBoden http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2790 BlueBoden Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:01:06 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2790 Sebastian you are indeed wrong, if the "/" slash is missing, it will be automatically assumed. The path can NOT be empty, I've read the specifications. It will not generate any duplicate content. Sebastian you are indeed wrong, if the “/” slash is missing, it will be automatically assumed. The path can NOT be empty, I’ve read the specifications.

It will not generate any duplicate content.

]]> By: BlueBoden http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2762 BlueBoden Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:29:32 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2762 I think you are wrong with the http://example.com/ redirect, because the requested path will always be "/", it makes no sense to redirect http://example.com to http://example.com/ The HTTP specification states, that a empty path, is the same as "/", in other words the root directory. [Link removed, page doesn't load in Chrome. For search engines and other services indexing Web resources by URI http://example.com and http://example.com/ are (usually) different URIs, giving two records for a resource. That's crap. Sebastian] I think you are wrong with the http://example.com/ redirect, because the requested path will always be “/”, it makes no sense to redirect http://example.com to http://example.com/

The HTTP specification states, that a empty path, is the same as “/”, in other words the root directory.

[Link removed, page doesn’t load in Chrome. For search engines and other services indexing Web resources by URI http://example.com and http://example.com/ are (usually) different URIs, giving two records for a resource. That’s crap. Sebastian]

]]> By: Sebastian http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2398 Sebastian Tue, 18 May 2010 13:19:14 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2398 Don't miss out on this <a href="http://maileohye.com/search-engines-urls-trailing-slash/">status report from Google's very hot Maile Ohye</a>! Don’t miss out on this status report from Google’s very hot Maile Ohye!

]]> By: g1smd http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2355 g1smd Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:33:33 +0000 http://sebastians-pamphlets.com/thou-must-not-steal-the-trailing-slash-from-my-urls/#comment-2355 Yes, this is exactly the point. Quoting example.com in a printed newspaper advert, or on radio and TV, allows people to access the site by typing the least amount of characters, the site redirecting the user to www.example.com/ before showing the content. There are no searchengine related effects. On the other hand, where there is another website linking out to a non-canonical URL such as example.com or example.com/index.html this may mean that the linked-to site does not get a full credit for that link when it is the URL www.example.com/ that will serve the content after the redirect. The redirect is necessary. It removes the possibility of Duplicate Content issues, but there might still be some drawbacks when non-canonical URLs are used in links. Yes, this is exactly the point. Quoting example.com in a printed newspaper advert, or on radio and TV, allows people to access the site by typing the least amount of characters, the site redirecting the user to www.example.com/ before showing the content. There are no searchengine related effects.

On the other hand, where there is another website linking out to a non-canonical URL such as example.com or example.com/index.html this may mean that the linked-to site does not get a full credit for that link when it is the URL www.example.com/ that will serve the content after the redirect.

The redirect is necessary. It removes the possibility of Duplicate Content issues, but there might still be some drawbacks when non-canonical URLs are used in links.

]]> 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: […]

]]>