Absolute URLs
-
Hi, this is a very basic question but I want to confirm, as I remembered it was consider a good practice to use the absolute version of your links when linking to other pages of your site, not for any issue related to passing authority or PageRank, but because if someone scraps your content then they would take the links as well (as if they didn't remove them).
Have the practices for internal linking with absolute or realtive URLs changed in any way? Which is the best way? absolute or relative? is there any harm for using the relative version?
Absolute: [](<strong><em>http://www.cheapdomain.com/myfolder/mypage.html)[](<strong><em>http://www.cheapdomain.com/myfolder/mypage.html)
[Thanks!](<strong><em>http://www.cheapdomain.com/myfolder/mypage.html)
-
Thanks Nemek and Alan, I actually have some issues with between the mobile version of our site and the absolute links, so yes Alfredo is right about being the best practice, but there is a big technical issue for our dev department.
-
Thanks Alfredo! Preciate it!
-
I think your correct, it is rare that it will actualy help
i like to use relative urls for portability, I think this advatage outweights any slight chance i get scaped, have my links left in, not no-followed and being a link worthwhile
-
Hi Andre,
Basically you're right - it's still a "best practice" but the main (or even only) advantage of using absolute URLs is when your content gets scraped and published "as is". The problem is that most of the time the scrapers will remove your URLs anyway or at least nofollow them. Even if they don't do that the quality of the links to your site you get from the "transaction" is very poor.
I've had a few situations where I got a couple of good links from authority sites that have quoted parts of my content and have included the links that were there. Even so, I've lately changed to using relative URLs because it makes development for me much easier, and I don't think the few scraper links I would get are really worth the hassle.
Cheers
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
-
Need advice on the better URL structure to go with
I am rebuilding our existing website on a new platform and need advice on which URL structure would be the most ideal. The following examples are of a product that we have with a very long page title. Not all of our products have titles this long, but enough of them do to cause some concern. I was also wondering if I should end the url with file type .html or if leaving it out is better. Thanks in advance! OPTION 1. this example just uses the root domain and the entire product title separated by dashes http://ewheels.nextmp.net/staggered-full-set-br-2-20x9-ace-alloy-aff01-metallic-silver-machined-face-flow-formed-br-2-20x10-5-ace-alloy-aff01-metallic-silver-machined-face-flow-formed OPTION 2. this example uses the crawl path as well as the entire product title http://ewheels.nextmp.net/wheels/ace-alloy-wheels/ace-alloy-aff01-metallic-silver-machined-face-flow-formed/staggered-full-set-br-2-20x9-ace-alloy-aff01-metallic-silver-machined-face-flow-formed-br-2-20x10-5-ace-alloy-aff01-metallic-silver-machined-face-flow-formed OPTION 3. this example uses the crawl path and just the part number at the end since the folders already contain all the keywords necessary http://ewheels.nextmp.net/wheels/ace-alloy-wheels/ace-alloy-aff01-metallic-silver-machined-face-flow-formed/ace-2090aff01silace-20105aff01sil
On-Page Optimization | | elementmotor0 -
Keeping SEO benefit of an old URL by changing content
We have a blog written in Oct 2012 that accounts for 30-40% of our traffic (174K pageviews per year/80% bounce rate). We are considering updating the content but are concerned that it will fall off the search engine's map if the content is updated to include information that is not exactly the same, but relevant. The URL would be the same and the original blog content would be shortened with a link to the full blog. The new content would include other FDA products under investigation. Here is the blog: http://myadvocates.com/blog/fda-issues-warning-about-so-called-brain-supplement-prevagen
On-Page Optimization | | jgodwin0 -
URL Path. What is better for SEO
Hello Moz people, Is it better for SEO to have a URL path like this: flowersite.com/anniversary_flowers/dozen_roses OR flowersite.com/dozen_roses Is it better to have the full trail of pages in the URL?
On-Page Optimization | | CKerr0 -
How to fix this URL?
Moz crawl test only show one URL indexed for the website - http://ravisharrma.com/ Site:http://ravisharrma.com/ shows 3 URLs and how to fix URLs for the website?
On-Page Optimization | | Dan_Brown10 -
Www.colourbanners.co.uk/ & colourbanners.co.uk showing up as two seperate URLs - is this going to be dupliacte content issue?
Hi Guys, I have just created a report in Moz and there appears to be 91 duplicate content issues with the site which i need to fix as i think it could be the reason why we are suffering from a penalty. One of the main questions i have is these 3 variations of the URL http://www.colourbanners.co.uk/ http://colourbanners.co.ukhttp://colourbanners.co.uk/Each have links pointing to them. My question is, could this be causing a dupe issue?regardsGerry
On-Page Optimization | | gezzagregz0 -
Removing old URLs that are being used for my on page optimization?
Is there a way to remove old URL's that are still being used for my keywords for my on page optimization? They are giving me grades of F since they no longer exist and if I change the URL to the current one, the grade becomes an A, but they are still showing after the new crawl.
On-Page Optimization | | Dirty0 -
Adding keywords to URL's
I understand the importance of having the keyword in the URL (at least now I do). When I created my site (www.enchantingquotes.com), I was completely ignorant about SEO. So....question is...how do I go about adding keywords to already done pages? Do I create a new section and then redirect - or do I have to basically recreate pages? Thx much 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | enchantedgirlz0