If I get links to a URL with and without a trailing slash, will my PageRank be split?

There are a lot of rumors about whether or not slash at the end of a domain makes a difference. Is there a difference between getting a backlink pointing to www.website.com" vs "www.website.com/" ? if you get links to both would your pr be split?" Y-bav, California

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• slash
• seo

[rubla325700]

bit.ly\watch?v=S6kDUM9PFno

[anandhmistry]

I got idea about home page but, have confusion with inner pages. If any website have 2 level or 3 level folder structure. So, What does it mean during inner pages?

[MrTiggerito]

@lemannequin It's definitely true for deeper links. The slash then chances the meaning from a file to a folder. It not only causes a separate URL but also changes the relative location of all files referenced. However, as @svivian pointed out, I think Matt is wrong about the optional use of a slash at the end of a domain name. It makes no difference as they represent the exact same location.

[NeenahOne]

Nice shirt you joker.

[Die1101]

I have to agree with svivian. In fact, if you type domain/ in Chrome or Firefox, it will remove the / for readability (I suppose) in the address bar, while on other browsers like IE, it's the other way around (/ is always added). What Matt says applies to directories.

[svivian]

@svivian jeez is it just me or does YouTube's comment usability totally suck? It kept saying "Error, try again" with no indication of what was wrong... turns out you can't post any URL here (also terrible usability). Except you can put a space in there so anyone could spam junk domains if they really wanted. Terrible, just terrible.

[svivian]

Sorry Matt, this is just plain wrong. There is literally no difference between "example . com" and "example . com/". It's impossible to return different content on the two URLs (as opposed to when there is a subfolder). Well technically there is only one URL, the one with the slash - you can't request the domain without specifying any path. You can also see that if you request any domain without the slash your browser will request the one with the slash (check in Chrome Dev Tools for example).

[lemannequin]

(spaces added to URL, so to be able to post here in YouTube)

[lemannequin]

Does this comments applies to other "deeper" URLs, like . example . com/some-section/some-article vs . example . com/some-section/some-article/­? I suppose so, but confirmation would help.

Thanks, Matt!