Linking with or without the http://

[WebRiverGroup]

When linking from forums, blogs, or any other forms of SEO link building, should we link with or without the http://?

Does google favor one more than the other or index them as two different pages?

For example:

| http://4wheelonline.com/ |

or

| 4wheelonline.com/ |

[WebRiverGroup]

Thank you for your help.

[SVmedia]

Any link that points to an external url technically has the http protocol, it just may be inferred or added by a browser/visual editor, etc. - so it's all the same to a search engine.

There is a difference between http://www.domain.com and http://domain.com, or any other time a single resource has multiple URL's...and this does matter. You don't need to try to control how you're linked to (cuz you can't) but make these duplicate url's are canonicalized (rel="canonical") or 301 redirected, so that search engines don't see it as duplicate content.

Here's Mr. Cutts explaining 301 vs. rel="canonical" in case you're headed down that road.

[TommyTan]

Hi,

When i participate on forums, i usually use http:// because most of the time when you simply enter example.com, it wouldn't recognize it as a link; thus not making it clickable and it doesn't stand out from the other text.  When you use http:// forums will recognize it as a link and make it clickable.  Furthermore, it stands out.

Regarding to whether Google favor which one more, i believe it is either between www. or non www. rather than http:// or not.  For example using www.examplesite.com or example.com.  I don't think Google has a favoritism on this but rather how you want Google to see your website as.  With www. or non www.  Whenever you link, you should be consistant and always use the same form of link so that Google will recognize that "Ah, you want your site to be show as www. and not non www.