Let's assume my domain is www.mydomain.com, my main page is index.htm and the other pages are page1.htm, page2.htm, page3.htm, etc. If I want page1.htm to link back to index.htm, should my link say <a href="index.htm">main</a> or <a href="http://www.mydomain.com">main</a> or <a href="http://www.mydomain.com/index.htm">main</a> Similarly, if I have another domain, www.mydomain2.com and I want to link to index.htm of www.mydomain.com, should the link say <a href="http://www.mydomain.com">main</a> or <a href="http://www.mydomain.com/index.htm">main</a> I'm asking this question in terms of SEO point of view in favor of index.htm of www.mydomain.com. Any input will be appreciated.
The standard is to use the root url in the scenario you provide. More broadly - its a reflection of the importance of consistency in linking practice. You need to make sure that all links to a particular page are consistent to avoid canonicalization. This is the process by which www.mysite.com is treated as a different page to www.mysite.com/index.html. If that's the case - they are treated as two different webpages (similar to the way www.google.com was often treated differently to http://google.com) Search engines are getting better at distinguishing this problem - but it's still wise to be prudent. Dylan