Can anyone help me out? Just realized that two of my sites have both a relative and absolute homepage. Here is an example of what I mean: http://www.autogrilles.com http://autogrilles.com They have a different number of backlinks too. What is the best option in terms of SEO here? A 301 redirect? If so, do I redirect to the relative or absolute path? Thanks in advance.
For good page rank calculations, it is important to redirect one to the other. In Google's webmaster tools, there is a section the does this for your. This is very important. The other problem you will have is the scenario: http://www.autogrilles.com http://autogrilles.com http://www.autogrilles.com/index.htm http://autogrilles.com/index.htm /index.htm ../index.htm and so on. As for WWW or not, in the usa, it seems that WWW is used as a "standard" but in Europe, the non is used. We use WWW for everything just because it is simple to remember. Oh, when you use <base href> in the above, it really gets screwed up.
Thanks Jim. I've changed the setting in Google webmaster tools. Can I now perform a 301 redirect from the www to the non www? My web guy mentioned something about an infinite loop when he attempted this... Thanks!
That happens when you do not put the correct "prefex string" in the <base href="prefex string Also, a mistake that is made is the prefex string ends with (/) but the url then starts with a (/). this causes a Http://www.mysite.com//webpage.php
I believe it is always best to use absolute linking for SEO as well as readability. The only problem is that if you are working on your desktop with the local copy of your files, then you will click a link and go to the web version of your page. Dave J seousermanual.com