Trailing Slashes In URLs: Do They Affect SEO?

Trailing slash SEO, what is it you may startle? Trailing slashes have been a part of URL structure for years. At first, there is a distinction in its use because web browsers use distinct URLs in the form of folders, directories, and web pages. In our modern era, using slashes in URLs is still full of dilemmas. In this blog, you will get to know what is trailing slash is in SEO and do trailing slashes matter for SEO. 

What is a trailing slash?

A trailing slash is denoted by a forward slash sign (/) and it is used in the URL structure of web pages. You can see trailing slashes in any URL. In the past years, a URL with a Google SEO trailing slash was considered to be a directory instead of a web file and vice-versa. It is Whether to use SEO trailing slash or not has been a question of debate for years. The search giant, Google itself provided a Google search central blog on the same topic. According to Google, the trailing slash does not bother Google or web browsers as a URL with or without a trailing slash is regarded as the same. It is all about the default nature of servers that treat URLs. The key is to stick to a plan: either you can use a forward slash in the URL or not use it. 

Then why care about it?

When you consider the user experience of end-users as well as SEO efforts for search engines, you may consider evaluating the use of trailing slash SEO. 

Trailing slashes help in determining website structure

The use of tracking slash indicates to the search engine the page is a unique URL and needs to be indexed thus contributing to determining your website structure. It helps in crawling and indexing of web pages. Besides, a trailing slash after the domain or other URL structure indicates different meanings to the search engines. 

Trailing slashes result in easy navigation

Trailing slashes might not provide any differences for end-users but how search engines crawl and index web pages matters. This interpretation of search engines either leads to easy or difficult navigation. 

How to remove trailing slashes SEO friendly

WordPress

When you do a technical SEO audit, you can contemplate its current use and whether removal or addition is required in your website. If you follow a custom URL structure, all you have to do is go to settings and select permalinks in WordPress. 

.htacess

Without modifying the main server modification, you can control how an Apache-based file web server operates and configure URL redirects or directory modifications. Using this configuration, you can remove and add a trailing slash. 

Types of trailing slashes

Trailing slash after the domain – This is the most common use case of trailing slash. Here, the forward slash use has no special meaning and is treated as the same. 

Google SEO trailing slash in other URL structures – Trailing slashes after a root URL is often considered to be a separate page rather than a part of a page.

Trailing slashes into a pagefile – If you add trailing slashes in existing files of different types, the page may show the arrow 404 not found instead of the original file. 

Do trailing slashes matter for SEO

The higher chance of having duplicate content – The website content on the page with a trailing slash as well as without a trailing slash might not be an issue for users but result in duplicate content problems for your website. This is because search engines consider both pages with the same content different and crawl both URL structures resulting in similar content issues. 

To avoid this, you can always mention the rel=’canoncial” tag so search engines will not index other versions of the web page. Otherwise, it will be Google’s duty to figure out which page to be indexed. 

Increased crawlability issues – The increased crawlability issues can occur due to indexing pages with similar content and it is especially true if you have a larger website. 

Server configuration – The server configuration of the system you work on largely determines how the use of trailing slashes is interpreted. This is because server configuration tells the browser how to respond to the URL with a trailing slash. 

Hreflang – If your website is using hreflang tags, it is important that the URL structure pointed by the hreflang tag must be the same as the canonical tag. If they are pointing to a different web page, the search engines may not notice the hreflang tag. The use of the hreflang tag helps Google and other search engines determine the language and country of different pages on a multi-lingual site. Therefore, the hreflang and canonical tags indicate different web pages, which will cause catastrophes. SEO trailing slash or not will not be a question for dilemma if you effectively use hreflang along with the canonical tag. 

Effective redirects –Another thing you can do to deal with trailing slashes is effective redirects. When a person searches your URL with a trailing slash, you can redirect them to the primary version of the web page. Without these redirects, you will be confusing the reader as well as search engines. Besides, you can avoid duplicate content or identical content issues in the future. 

Examples of trailing slashes

example.com/gallery/

https://productiveshop/oxford-comma-b2b- copywriting/

https://example.com/blog/seo

https://example.com/yoga-for-beginners

With the help of a qualified SEO services company in Dubai, it is easy to employ the right use case of trailing slashes. How URL is interpreted with or without a trailing slash is entirely a server-side operation and appropriate best practices can certainly accentuate your SEO efforts and enhance user experience. Always stick to create an SEO-friendly URL structure; you can either continue to use trailing slash or not use it in the entire URL address. This consistency will enhance user experience and the server’s configuration related to trail slashes.