Why does OSE show different link equity for homepage with and without trailing slash?

[danatanseo]

Hi all,

I am working with a developer who believes OSE (Open Site Explorer) is flawed. His reasoning is that OSE shows completely different link equity and domain authority for these two URLs [company name is purposely withheld]:

http://www.mydomain.com/us/

and

http://www.mydomain.com/us

NOTE: http://www.mydomain.com/us has been properly 301-redirecting to http://www.mydomain.com/us/ for years.

The developer's argument is that the URL that is being 301-redirected shouldn't have any link equity at all, therefore OSE is flawed.

Here is the response I would like to give him. Please feel free to poke holes, provide feedback or flat out correct me if I am wrong:

Dear inquisitive developer,

Any URL that is being linked to by another site that has link equity will get link equity passed to it. This is true even if the URL is a page that doesn't exist. What it can't do (if it doesn't exist) is then pass that link equity on to another page. Moz's OSE is showing separate link equity for the two versions of this URL because other sites have linked to both versions. The fact that one 301-redirects to the other is good and ensures that link equity from one is passing to the preferred URL. The 301-redirect does not, however, remove link equity from the first URL, but rather passes the existing link equity from one to the other.

Consequently, Moz's OSE is not flawed, but rather is displaying the link equity of one URL that is benefiting the other via a 301-redirect.

Sincerely,

Dana

[DavidLee]

Hi Dana!

This is perfectly accurate

[SEOCandyland]

You've explained this beautifully, the last 3 sentences specifically.