2 replies to this topic

[houndog]

Apparently there is a rumor that Google prefers absolute URLs to relative ones. I would think this would not make a difference, since the crawler would know what website it is in, and therefore, know what the / is referencing - for page links OR for images.

Is this true? Is it OK to use the simpler relative URL for internal links and src image listings?

Thanks! Sorry if this is in another thread. I've looked around, and I'm happy to go to where you refer me.

[Jill]

Apparently there is a rumor that Google prefers absolute URLs to relative ones.

No they don't. It's all the same to them.

The reason you've heard it mentioned is that in some cases, absolute URLs can be helpful such as when you have 2 domains parked at the same address.

But for most websites having relative URLs is perfectly fine. Google certainly does not "prefer" one over the other. You just help them do their job in complicated circumstances when you use absolute ones.

Added: while we haven't had this question in awhile, I know we have numerous past threads that provide more info. Please see these ones for more:

 relative vs. absolute urls[/hr]

[houndog]

Thank you, Jill! And thanks for taking the time to provide the link to that Google boosted search. Very helpful.