Slash at the end of a url

[corwin]

I keep reading contradicting information, so I figured I'll ask here.

What's the best practice for slash '/' at the end of a URL?

Should it be idealchooser.com/search/laptop/ or idealchooser.com/search/laptop (no trailing slash)?

The options:

1. Accept both equally

2. Accept 1 and redirect the other with 301

3. Accept 1 and treat the other as a wrong URL returning 404

Which would be the best for SEO?

Thank you.

[corwin]

Thank you very much Matt.

Now I get it

[Matt-Williamson]

Just to be clear that when you decide which version you want to be your main url structure you need to make sure that all your internal should point at the preferred format.

So if you are putting preference on the trailing slash as in your 301 redirect is from none trailing slash to trailing slash then your internal link structure should match.

[corwin]

Thank you Matt,

From the article: "The takeaway here is that whenever possible, it is better to internally link to the version with the backslash."

Just to be clear, does this mean that all my internal links should not contain a trailing slash and I should make sure links with a trailing slash are internally redirected to the same page?

If I remember correctly, when I did this SEOmoz marked it as duplicate content, but Google seemed to be fine with it.

I know I'm being very picky here, I just want to make sure I don't loose ranking because of something that seems so minor.

Thanks.

[Matt-Williamson]

I would look at going down the canonical route - have a look at canonicalization guide from SEOMoz here - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization

I would add a canonical tag pointing at your preferred format url and I would also do a 301 redirect between the two. Using both won't cause issues and obviously your link juice will keep flowing.

It specifically talks about trailing slashes and redirecting from none trailing to trailing towards the end of the article.