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I recently moved a website to wordpress which the wordpress default includes the trailing slash (/) after ALL urls.

My url structure used to look like:  www.example.com/blue-widgets

Now it looks like:  www.example.com/blue-widgets/

Today I checked the urls using Open Site Explorer and below is what I discovered:

www.example.com/blue-widgets returned all my links, authority, etc HOWEVER there is a note that says........."Oh Hey! it looks like that URL redirects to www.example.com/blue-widgets/. Would you like to see data for that URL instead?"

When I click on the link to THAT URL I get a note that says_.....NO DATA AVAILABLE FOR THIS URL._

Does this mean that www.example.com/blue-widgets/ really has NO DATA?

How do I fix this?

When optimizing videos for a website should the Alt and Title be the same or is that too much?  If so what is the best practice for optimizing images on a website?

For example

title=Blue widgets in Atlanta

alt=Blue widgets in Atlanta

Also, I'm assuming the image name should be Blue widgets in Atlanta

I just installed webbug.  Do I just enter the url and then click "get"?

Where would I typically see if it's giving me a 301?

This is what I see

HTTP/1.1 200 OKServer: nginx/0.7.65Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:13:37 GMTContent-Type: text/htmlContent-Length: 899Last-Modified: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:58:50 GMTConnection: closeAccept-Ranges: bytes

WP Engine - Finely Tuned WordPress

Sorry, we couldn't find the domain you're looking for. Did you just signup?  We're still creating the account. Did you point DNS to the correct IP address? Please find the current IP address for your site, under the WP Engine plugin page in the /wp-admin/ for your site. Did you configure the domain under your account at WP Engine? * * * If you've completed the above, then please contact us at help.wpengine.com, so we can help get this fixed as soon as possible.

I don't think it has effected traffic or indexation yet.  However he did this about 4 days ago and I didn't realize it until now.

Right now it seems that he redirected ALL www to non-www.

If I follow a link from www.example.com/page1 it is redirected to example.com/page1

So even though it does not matter too much you still suggest I redirect to www.example.com?

Thanks Marcus.  This has had me worried for the last few days.

The developer had already changed it without checking with me.  

Will it hurt anything if I change it back to www.example.com?

I believe I have to change it in several different places right?

via WPengine dashboard, user portal in the domains tab, and google webmaster tools

Is there anywhere else that I should check to make sure it's set up correctly?

I had a website moved to wpengine lately and when the developer set it up on wpengine he used http://example.com/.  For the last few years the site has been directing to http://www.example.com/

Should I redirect the site to http://www.example.com/ to avoid losing indexed pages and google rankings?

I agree with the above.  301 redirect.  Keep in mind that changing urls however will result in some traffic loss...the only question is how much.

The more 301s you have the more your rankings will suffer in the transition.

Do not move your entire site with just 301s.

If you are changing domain below might be a safer option.

If you are simply migrating a site to Wordpress I don't believe 301 redirects are necessary.  All you need to do is make sure the same url structure is used.

Its basically like doing a website redesign.

Now if you are moving to a new domain:

1.  get the new pages live first.  Add canonical tags pointing old pages to new pages.

2.  Watch search results and see your existing ranking results move to new pages.  Wait until all significant search traffic has shifted to new pages

3.  take down old pages and replace with 301 redirect.

Thanks for the responses.  I found a good explanation here also

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/to-slash-or-not-to-slash.htmlThis post from Google Webmasters says that either one is fine.  Just make sure you do one or the other.Regarding your root domain -

• Rest assured that for your root URL specifically, http://example.com is equivalent to http://example.com/ and can’t be redirected even if you’re Chuck Norris.

Does having a trailing slash make a url different than the same url without the trailing slash?

www.example.com/services

Or

www.example.com/services**/**

Does Google consider these to be the same link or does Google treat them as different links?

Some agencies use article syndication to get links back to your website.

There are many schools of thought on article syndication. As long as you don't have a copy of that article on your site you should be safe however I have read recently that the technique is a waste of time these days.

Good article on article syndication vs duplicate content

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/syndicated-content-duplicate-content/28833/

You are only penalized when you have duplicate content that resides on your website.  For example if you have  blog post on your website and that same post exists on another website. ..........that is duplicate content and you could be penalized.

If you are guest posting and using the same content for each one the owner of the website that you are posting on needs to be concerned with that.  It's a good idea for a website owner to run content through copyscape before agreeing to post it on their website.

Thanks CMC!  Others I have discussed with said it doesn't matter and that their is no "preferred" structure.

One person said:

Google uses urls only at the spidering stage and then reintroduces them when composing the SERPs but the "machine" does not use them at all - your pages are known by an internal number, not the url.  As long as the urls are easily spiderable the urls do not matter

Thanks Irving.

I am currently using this version www.example.com/service#1

I'm having a site migrated to wordpress and noticed that their default was for every service listed under the main navigation title (services) to have /services/service#1, etc.

I'm having to change the wordpress default so my urls don't change.  Just wanted to make sure that the version I am using now is safe

Which URL structure does google prefer..............OR DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

Option A

www.example.com/services/service#1 - this is the default that wordpress uses

Option B

www.example.com/service#1

Hi J.P.

I just updated some title tags as well.  I just posted the page link to my google + profile.  I will let you know how quickly google updates them in the serps.