Absolute Links vs. Relative Links – SEO Value

Edyta Majlergaard — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:56:30 +0000

What is the difference between absolute links and relative links?

An absolute link provides the complete website address and contains more information than a relative link, but relative links are more convenient because they are shorter.
Relative links are used to link to pages within your own domain; Absolute links are necessary to use when linking to pages with a different domain and your own
Pages that use a relative URL will load more quickly than pages using absolute links

WHY CHOOSE RELATIVE LINKS?

This link is relative if the path is not a full website address. (A full website address includes http://www.)

linkhere.html“>Click Me

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Relative links make it easy to do things like change your domain name without having to go through all your HTML pages, hunting down links and changing the names.

WHY CHOOSE ABSOLUTE LINKS?

The domain name of the website, including http://www ex:

“http://www.website.com/pictures/pictures.html”

Click here to visit CoffeeCup Software.

An absolute URL makes it harder for people to scrape information from your website using scraper programs. If you have all of your internal links as relative links, it would be very easy for a scraper to simply scrape your entire website and put it up on a new domain.

Relative Paths

index.html
/graphics/image.png
/help/articles/how-do-i-set-up-a-webpage.html

Absolute Paths

http://www.mysite.com
http://www.mysite.com/graphics/image.png
http://www.mysite.com/help/articles/how-do-i-set-up-a-webpage.html

SEO value is better for absolute links and relative links?

The debate between absolute links and relative links continues to live on in the SEO world. The individual significance of each has been contested, but it is widely regarded that absolute links provide better SEO value on the whole than relative links.

Many believe that absolute links have less potential for getting messed up when search engines index your page. It shouldn’t really make a difference, but many conclude that this is reason enough.

Furthermore, content scrapers and RSS services may ‘repurpose’ your content legitimately (or not). In either case, shouldn’t a proper back-link be attributed to your site? This situation favours absolute links. Although this is a minor argument, it’s still worth considering.

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Incorporation of Company Branding and SEO Strategy

Edyta Majlergaard — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:54:17 +0000

SEO is not an exact science. This becomes apparent when trying to incorporate both

SEO and branding into a strategy!!!

This process is finicky, to say the least. On the one side, SEO deals with the placement of keywords and phrases. On the other side, branding deals with company loyalty and culture. Incorporating both sides dilutes the prominence of both. But eliminating one or the other may not meet all strategic and marketing goals.

Branding and SEO

Once again, it should be emphasized that SEO is a series of guidelines rather than an exact science. Having said that, the following recommendation can be used to satisfy both sides of the equation. In general, keywords and phrases (i.e. SEO) should remain the focus of any early-stage company, while the incorporation of company branding should appear later in the evolution. This is simply a general statement and should not be taken word for word.

The reasoning is pretty straightforward. At first, no-one knows the name of your company, but perhaps they are searching for your products or services. In other words, you want to target keywords and phrases that focus around your offering rather than your company. As you build loyalty and credibility, branding becomes more important. It’s at this point that you may want to incorporate corporate messaging to strengthen the relationship with customers and instill trust in your brand.

One final thought about branding: if a searcher types in the name of your company, they are likely to find your website anyways. This is due mostly to anchor text and back-links. Therefore, optimizing for the company name is rather insignificant in most cases.