From Newbie: http://www.domain.com OR http://www.domain.com/ (with forward slash / ) which is the right one and what is the difference between the two? Or Simply www.domain.com
As far as I know, trailing slash makes no difference from seo perspective, but it does reduce server load (since there's no redirect involved). I always add it with all my directory submissions to reduce my server load. Google also uses it, so why not use it yourself? (I don't understand why yahoo/msn does not follow suits)...
Without the trailing slash, browser and web server would need an additional handshake betn them to retrieve a correct default document (e.g., index.html, index.php, etc) from the root directory. This means the server needs to process an additional http request..
I'm not sure of all the technical jargon but go with the trailing slash. Google can see www.whatever.com and www.whatever.com/ as actual seperate sites at least with Pagerank.
romow: Second Query: and what is the difference than for: http://www.domain.com/ and http://www.domain.com/index.htm or index.php from directory submission point of view/getting backlinks?
If you are aiming for PR, building backlinks to domain.com/ will automatically pass PR to /index.php, but not the other way around. So I wouldn't build backlinks to /index.htm.
I think your browser will automatically put in a trailing slash for you. In my directory I don't allow it and manually add it in.
romow: If you are aiming for PR, building backlinks to domain.com/ will automatically pass PR to /index.php, but not the other way around. So I wouldn't build backlinks to /index.htm. Thanks; Will it hurt if you build back links both for domain.com/ and /index.php?
I guess building backlinks to those two urls separately would split the page strength of the main site between the two. Why would do that if you are spending money on link building? If I were you, I would instead build backlinks to different internal pages (e.g., domain.com/internal1/). Good luck,