With or without "/" at the end of domain

[DavidSpivac]

Hello,

A client domains appear sometimes like www.domain.co.uk and sometimes like www.domain.co.uk/

I would like to place redirects from URLs that contain strings such as /index.aspx?id=42 to the main page but which one should I pick? With or without the "/" ?

Thank you

[DavidSpivac]

Thank you Alex,

Great answer.

Cheers,

David

[Alex-Harford]

As well as any duplicate index.aspx pages, you should make sure that www.domain.co.uk and www.domain.co.uk/ are not loading as seperate URLs and that one 301 redirects to the other. The same with or without the www.

I don't think it matters which you choose too much, as long as you're consistent across the whole website. I'd go without a stroke; people are more likely to link to you without typing the stroke at the end, so I think you'll get slightly more link juice to the chosen URL if you don't include it (saving a 301 redirect from the '/' version). As a personal preference, I also think a URL looks neater without the '/'.

Here's Google's advice: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/to-slash-or-not-to-slash.html