Should my URLs with or without a slash? And how to avoid multiple redirects?
-
Moz, I am noticing that I need to go back and update my outbound links to your site. There are a lot of them because your content is so great and we love you guys.
Could you explain your logic for making the change?
Example on my Schema Markup Website Audits page:
https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed/ redirected to: https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed
-
Hi Jo Cameron,
I appreciate your response. Being the SEO / SEM guru that MOZ is, one anticipates that there is a well-thought reason behind any/all URL changes. Likely it is still so and may be shared in time by someone who knows the "why". URLs are truly the lifeblood of a site. While many have come to "pile up" on 301's, Google's John Mueller has urged webmasters to keep them at a minimum, which I am sure is not news to you.
We dedicate some time weekly to update URLs such as outbound links where the other site has migrated to HTTPS from HTTP, which is happening a lot right now. It can feel like a wild ride with some sites as they as flip, too frequently IMHO, from www to non-www, and then switch up slugs, and/or using the "/" or not at the end. We sure "get" why we all strive to make improvements and always value the learning curve. Often when it is too exhaustive, we just drop providing a backlink to them (not Moz:)).
Thanks for the great article lead, I had previously read it several times and gained by reading it afresh. But again, we are trying to NOT rely so heavily on 301s.
You are right, it isn't our top priority, either.
Thank you, Jeannie
-
Hi Jeannie,
Thanks for reaching out, and thanks for the love!
I'm sorry to say I don't have any information on why this change was made.
As you probably know, in general this redirect behaviour on our site is in place to avoid duplicate URLs. You can read more about this here https://moz.com/community/q/301-redirect-adding-trailing-slash-to-url.
In terms of the link from your site, as we have a 301 the traffic and equity are being passed to the final location.
It may not be worth your time updating all your existing links, I would suggest focusing on new links moving forward :]
I hope this helps, please do let me know if you would like more clarification or have any other queries.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should backlink URLs include www, https, or both???
My business is located at remotebaba.com, and I am wanting several sites to link to it.
Link Building | | udaipabla
I am only interested in home page at this point, and we are using HTTPS for our site. Which one of these should I have other sites link to (Please provide complete justification):
remotebaba.com (my root domain)
www.remotebaba.com
https://remotebaba.com
https://www.remotebaba.com I really appreciate your help!1 -
What Should be the URL of third party blog for my website
Hi All, What Should be the URL of third party blog for my website. Lets say if i have a website xyz.com (which provide pest control services in New York City) and I want to create third party blogs on platforms like blogspot, weebly etc so should i create the blog url as xyz.blogspot.com or i can use a keyword in the blog URL such as pestcontrolnyc.blogspot.com? Which URL would be the best as per Google's guidelines. Note: I have already have a blog within the domain as xyz.com/blog/ and i do weekly posting on this blog. But at the same time i want to create 1-2 third party blogs to get some backlinks from other sources.
Link Building | | Mr.Suren0 -
Correctly Dealing With Redirects
Hi, Hope someone might be able to help me with this. One of our sites was built badly and the orginal url structure was to have mydomain.com/index.php but these have been changed to mydomain.com by a developer who has put the redirects in place. The problem is that in webmaster tools my link count has dropped to 18 from nearly 2300. I am assuming that Google is not seeing the redirect, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Link Building | | mitonmark0 -
Ranking Multiple Domains Simultaneously
What kind of strategy would one implement to rank multiple domains in SERPs? (One domain per keyword) I am looking more into link blocking and that, but I don't know the effectiveness and consistency of the strategy. Does anyone have any recommendations? I really can't be arsed giving every single site it's own full SEO treatment 🙂 Thanks very kindly and in advance for your thoughts 🙂
Link Building | | Ultra_Valves0 -
Linkbuilding without blogging?
I am looking at starting to do some link building for my site. I have already done directory listing. What are my options for link building without blogs? Things like Wikihow?
Link Building | | EcommerceSite0 -
Geo targeting multiple locations organically
When targeting multiple cities for specific keyword phrases, do local links like Merchant Circle, & Yelp need to be present for each town?
Link Building | | KristopherWho0 -
Could google recognize urls in data-attributes?
Hi, could google's crawler recognize the following example as a link and will be crawl the url? any experience? ty for your help
Link Building | | censeo0 -
Which tool is best for analyzing link prospect urls
Hi Mozers, I am currently looking for the best tool for analyzing bulk urls which are potential link prospects. I would like information on seo quality metrics like rel=nofollow etc. Your advise is much valued. Thanks, Fuad
Link Building | | Fuad_YK0