Wednesday, April 21, 2010<\/p>\n
\n That is the question we hear often. Onward to the answers! Historically, it’s common for URLs with
\n a trailing slash to indicate a directory, and those without a trailing slash to denote a file:\n<\/p>\n
\n But they certainly don’t have to. Google treats each URL above separately (and equally) regardless
\n of whether it’s a file or a directory, or it contains a trailing slash or it doesn’t contain a
\n trailing slash.\n<\/p>\n
\n From a technical, search engine standpoint, it’s certainly permissible for these two URL versions \n For this reason, trailing slash and non-trailing slash URLs often serve the same content. The most \n You can do a quick check on your site to see if either of the URLs matching this pattern What if your site serves duplicate content on these two URLs:<\/p>\n \n Meaning that both URLs return
\n to contain different content. Your users, however, may find this configuration horribly
\n confusing—just imagine if www.google.com\/webmasters<\/code> and
\n www.google.com\/webmasters\/<\/code> produced two separate experiences.\n<\/p>\n
\n common case is when a site is configured with a directory structure:\n<\/p>\nYour site’s configuration and your options<\/h2>\n
\n redirects<\/a> to the other:\n<\/p>\n\n
https:\/\/example.com\/foo\/<\/code>
\n
\n (with trailing slash)\n <\/li>\nhttps:\/\/example.com\/foo<\/code>
\n
\n (no trailing slash)\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\n behavior is beneficial because it reduces
\n duplicate content<\/a>. In the
\n particular case of redirects to trailing slash URLs, our search results will likely show the
\n version of the URL with the
\n 200<\/code> response code<\/a>
\n (most often the trailing slash URL)—regardless of whether the redirect was a
\n 301<\/code> \u0438\u043b\u0438 302<\/code>.\n <\/li>\n
\n 200<\/code>, you can:<\/p>\n\n
\n crawl efficiency<\/a>.\n <\/li>\n
\n case for webmasters and users. While it’s not totally optimal behavior, it’s perfectly
\n legitimate and a-okay. \ud83d\ude42\n <\/li>\nhttps:\/\/example.com<\/code> is
\n equivalent to https:\/\/example.com\/<\/code> and can’t be redirected even if you’re Chuck
\n Norris.\n <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSteps for serving only one URL version<\/h2>\n
200<\/code> (neither has a redirect or contains
\n rel=\"canonical\"<\/code> link tag<\/a>
\n ), and you want to change the situation?\n<\/p>\n\n
\n conventional to use a trailing slash with your directory URLs (for example,
\n example.com\/directory\/<\/code> rather than example.com\/directory<\/code>), but you can
\n choose whichever you like.\n <\/li>\n
\n sitemap<\/a>, include the preferred version
\n (and don’t include the duplicate URL).\n <\/li>\n301<\/code> redirect from the duplicate to the preferred version. If that’s not
\n possible, the rel=\"canonical\"<\/code> link tag is a strong option.
\n rel=\"canonical\"<\/code> works similarly to a 301<\/code> for Google’s indexing
\n purposes, and other major search engines as well.\n <\/li>\n301<\/code> configuration through
\n Fetch as Googlebot<\/a>
\n in Webmaster Tools<\/a>.
\n Make sure your URLs, https:\/\/example.com\/foo\/<\/code> and
\n https:\/\/example.com\/foo<\/code>, are behaving as expected. The preferred version should
\n return a 200<\/code> status code. The duplicate URL should 301<\/code> redirect to the
\n preferred URL.\n <\/li>\n
\n Crawl errors<\/a>
\n in Webmaster Tools, and, if possible, your webserver logs as a quick check that the
\n 301<\/code> redirects are implemented.\n <\/li>\n
\n warmed by the knowledge that your site is better optimized.\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n