Absolute vs relative urls

[LinenMe]

Hello,

Should absolute or relative urls to be used for the internal links? I heard mixed opinions on that:

• One source claims that web crawlers prefer absolute urls as they are more understandable
• Other source points that there is no difference for web crawlers what urls are used and relative urls are shorter which reduces the size of a page.

Which option is recommended?

Many thanks

Darius

[DiamondJewelryEmpire]

Take a look at this thread: http://www.seomoz.org/q/disadvantages-advantages-for-this-e-commerce-url-structure

[MaryAnneG]

Years ago, the performance advantage of relative urls made them the better choice.  These days, that's not a major issue.

One advantage to absolute urls:  If your content gets scraped there's a chance that they won't bother looking at the links, so any traffic they pick up will be directed back to YOUR site instead of to another page on the scraper's site.

(Also makes it easier to find the thieves...)

[Tom-Anthony]

From a crawler point of view, I don't believe there is any difference. However, MaryAnneG makes a good point about scrapers. The downside of absolute URLs is they are harder to maintain, especially if you move to a new domain or change the structure of your site.

[Getz.pro]

What is important is that you remain consistent. Also, I like absolute when pages use rewrite rules, URLs can get broke.

Personally, I always use absolute.

[LinenMe]

Thanks for all the answers!

Now will have to evaluate all the pros and cons and make the decision. Good point that it has to be consistent

[Doc_Sheldon]

I agree that there's no longer any difference to the crawlers. However, one other thing worthy of consideration is the possibility of moving the site to a new URL. With relative URLs, you may be saved a lot of painstaking work, whereas with absolutes, every single page will have to be rewritten. There are tools to assist in the task, but it's still a lousy job to undertake.