Absolute Vs Relative URL Path

[dragiia]

For SEO purposes, is it better to use Absolute or Relative URLs? I've searched online and I can only find conflicting opinions. My website is almost entirely relative URLs, so I'm trying to determine whether I should go through it and change all of them.

 

[Aty]

I am using absolute urls for all my sites, and I advise everyone to do so.

 

[dragiia]

Now please tell me why.

 

[iamsolo]

What are absolute and relative URLs? Can someone explain me ?

 

[dragiia]

<a href="http://www.yourdomain.com/page1.html">page1</a> - Absolute
<a href="page1.html">page1</a> - Relative

 

[Gogol]

This is a hard question to answer but I believe it makes no difference atall, because a robot will crawl a url for knowing information on it. When it does, it ultimately visits the absolute url anyway.

 

[katona44]

You might want to check this article:
https://yoast.com/relative-urls-issues/

It pretty much explains why it is not recommended.

 

[Aty]

Now please tell me why.

I've been dealing with both and I've found working with absolute urls to be far more convenient from almost every point of view.

 

[dragiia]

You might want to check this article:
https://yoast.com/relative-urls-issues/

It pretty much explains why it is not recommended.

The only problem with that article is that it was written in 2012, things change.

 

[thecornstach]

I always use absolute path for my sites for one simple reason. If someone scrapes any of the sites it will be extra effort to make it sound like the content was theirs originally. (I know you can find/replace but most people don't bother).

It is a bigger pain if you ever migrate, but worth it.

 

[Techxan]

Absolutely absolute.

 

[dragiia]

Absolutely absolute.

Now can you tell me why?

 

[Techxan]

^^It strengthens the crap out of your internal linking.

 

[dragiia]

The consensus seems to be Absolute. The only downside to using Absolute is that if you change domains or something, the links no longer work, correct?

 

[Techxan]

The consensus seems to be Absolute. The only downside to using Absolute is that if you change domains or something, the links no longer work, correct?

Correct. That is what "Find and Replace" is for.

 

[Gogol]

Not that easy when you have a 6gb database in your hand.

Correct. That is what "Find and Replace" is for.

 

[truechristknowhow]

Absolute to be on the safe side.