Blog Url both trailing slash and non-trailing slash versions

[TuchD]

Trailing slashes on URLs creates duplicate content. For example, URLs are available with and without trailing slashes, as follows:

i.e. domain.co.uk/blog

domain.co.uk/blog/

domain.co.uk/blog/article-one

domain.co.uk/blog/article-one/

The above URLs are different but they display the same content available on different URLs, which creates duplicate content for search engines to index.

Ideally I require just the non-trailing slash versions, I can always set redirects if necessary,

as google sees both these pages as duplicate content so not good practice for SEO.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[Liam Dilley]

The only way that comes in to play is if you link it differently on the website.

Duplicate content punishment ONLY comes with different domains with the same content. One of the biggest Myths of SEO that is, and if anyone ever says to you it does... they do not know what they are talking about.

Duplicate content on YOUR site comes into an issue with which URL google things it should rank and which it should show up in the search results.

With that you can put in canonical URL's to help tell google which version of a URL you want it to factor. This is not a directive though, its only a "suggestive" feature so google can choose to ignore that.

[TuchD]

Many thanks Liam for you feedback, I appreciate it!

Just wondered however why the dynamic pages are accessible with or without the trailing slash,

static pages can be set with or without the tariffing slash, and can't be accessed both ways.

Thanks again.

[Liam Dilley]

Nothing is set with a trailing slash automatically.

You can add a trailing slash to any normal page if you create (try it).

This is how the web works in terms of page and folder structure. Server configurations etc can have different behaviours but it is up to you how you link your site.