Backslash in URL

[dianeb152]

my main URL is www.americanmusical.com, SEOMOZ shows I have a duplicate page title on www.americanmusical.com/. I have the think the backslash is causing other issues. I noticed when I first go to my site it is without the /, but if I navigate to the home page, the URL has the / in it. Any ideas on if this is a problem or how to handle it?

[dianeb152]

Alan,

nice cat!

As you can see I am not technical, but I will give to the guys that are on Monday morning.

My programming staff always laughs at how I explain things. I have never heard anyone explain the difference between a forward and a back slash like that before, but I am sure I will never forget it now!

Thank you very much!

[loopyal]

diane,

Nice site,

that is a forward slash.

/  is a forward slash because it leans forward.

\ is a backslash because it leans back.

(because we write left to right)

When I look at your URLs, it always shows without the trailing slash

• Also, I tried index.htm and default.htm and default.html and they all give a basic 404 page.

You could redirect those (not that I expect anyone to try them, but they might, and you definitely know what their intent would be, so you could redirect to the home page.

I don't know why SeOMoz does that duplicate thing. I think it is just doing its exact match check. It needs to be just a little bit smarter than it is. That report freaked me out too, the first time I saw it.

Also, you should consider making a nice 404 page, because it is a better experience for your visitors - I made mine into a funny page - you could do something great with musicians and instruments.

[dianeb152]

If I click on the AMS logo, or anywhere that goes to the home page, I get the /.

I've attached a screen shot. Thank you!

XzKUW

[firstconversion]

What are you clicking on to find that homepage with the /? I clicked around a bit and it seems to work properly - removing the trailing / in all cases

S