Absolute vs relative urls internal linking

[harold]

I have been reading about the SEO influence of the choice between absolute and relative urls for internal linking.

Some say it does not make a difference and that search engines (also Google) don't care if you use absolute or relative urls. Others say that it does make a difference and that it is better to use absolute urls.

My obvious question is now whether it does matter or not.

On a certain website with a Joomla backend, I'm having trouble implementing absolute urls. That is why I want to know if I can just as well use relative urls or that I should find a solution which would allow me to implement absolute urls.

Many thanks

[LiveCasinoPartners]

I saw that Question on Matt Cutt's Blog. He said it does not matter which one you use relative or absolute. He said he personally prefers absolute urls so he doesn't mess up the code if the relative path changes. Since that's a personal preference and not an SEO issue your Joomla setting really do not need to be changed.
Here's what he said:

A few sort of niggly bits. How about relative URLs versus absolute URLs? The answer to that is you can use either one. We recommend absolute URLs. And there’s a very simple reason. When you have relative URLs, you can move a URL and everything stays the same relative to that URL. So essentially, you know the homepage can say /images or images. And that will move it relative to that particular page. But it’s better to have an absolute URL because this is a powerful tool, and you really want to say this URL goes to exactly this URL. So you want to specify that. Whereas if it’s relative, if you mess it up here, then you might mess it up somewhere else as well.

Here are some links of his so you can read his discussions on the same topic:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/clicka...be-transcript/
http://sphinn.com/story/50854

Cheers!

[raphnix]

I have been reading about the SEO influence of the choice between absolute and relative urls for internal linking.

Some say it does not make a difference and that search engines (also Google) don't care if you use absolute or relative urls. Others say that it does make a difference and that it is better to use absolute urls.

My obvious question is now whether it does matter or not.

On a certain website with a Joomla backend, I'm having trouble implementing absolute urls. That is why I want to know if I can just as well use relative urls or that I should find a solution which would allow me to implement absolute urls.

Many thanks

SEO-wise, I don't see any harm or particular disadvantage of one to the other url structuring.

Although, in practicality concerning in web design and development, it's more wise to use relative url especially if you're opt to change your site domain sooner or later.

I also think that using absolute url in your coding have small effect on your on page optimization especially keyword density. The actual text contents are the ones that really counts big time on this part.

[casinojack]

While speaking of your internal site, might want to review your internal linking strat. Mind If ask which one you doing ?



PS, images above from one of my favorite SEO books of all time, some of you might notice it....

[harold]

Thanks for the replies. I still read mixed stories about absolute and relative although you guys seem to be among the ones that believe it makes no difference.

I think I will try to make them all absolute since it comes with some advantages and I want to be on the safe side

While speaking of your internal site, might want to review your internal linking strat. Mind If ask which one you doing ?

For now I'm using the structure A, from your experience which one is better (A or B), or are there still other strategies that you would prefer?

[vmlinuz]

I can't see any reason why it would make any difference for search engines and haven't seen any W3C recommendations regarding internal linking. It would be simply stupid if it had any impact on rankings.

[casinojack]

Might be stupid but it does...I prefer to use B...Now guess why!!

[vmlinuz]

I can't see any reason why it would make any difference for search engines and haven't seen any W3C recommendations regarding internal linking. It would be simply stupid if it had any impact on rankings.

Sh*t, I've just seen what I wrote. This happens when you do other work while posting.
I wanted to say it shouldn't matter if you're using relative or absolute links as long as they are pointing to the correct page.
Link structure can have an effect on rankings, casinojack and others are right.

[LiveCasinoPartners]

Might be stupid but it does...I prefer to use B...Now guess why!!

I've been thinking about this since yesterday. My first reaction was diagram "A", but then I thought about the possible effects of "B". It seems that "B" would have a greater penetration of SERP placement due to the conservation of internal linking. Seems that the main page would rank better for a given keyword phrase given all other factors equal?

[harold]

Might be stupid but it does...I prefer to use B...Now guess why!!

I don't really see how you would setup structure B. Do you have an example?

Or maybe better, the name of the book in which its explained

I never really read SEO books, I preferred info on the internet because I figured that a book would be obsolete already when it's published but maybe I'm wrong

[casinojack]

funnt htingis i read a book a long tima ago called "reveneg of the mininets" and one called "dynamic linking". I have them and will fire them off to you if you like, save you some cash, but bottom line they great books that still apply today

My main linking strat i use today that works 99.9% of the time is based of this method.

I call it, yes this is real name, "The Ninja Horseshoe". I will be publishing the book this month and will put of a free copy here, though selling it for 20 bucks elsewhere, so might change title for here...

As a side note, I read all e-books I can. TONS. of course, I rarely pay as most are junk, but if I read something good, then I buy it. So much free info out there is crazy.