Andy,

May I impose to ask for a clear definition of the importance of a trailing slash and the ramifications of including one .. or not ..
as per your post above.

Your articulate writing is refreshing, and I for one could not make any sense of the "technical" story written by the Serountable.

My concerns are: when I set up my very first blog at Blogger they insisted on the trailing slash at the end of the url ie. mydomain.com/blog/ ... in a nutshell, which is the better or correct practise as far as SEO goes?

Apart from Brad Callen's teachings, your SEO techniques are the only legitimate sources I now refer to in the course of optimising my domain prior to going online for the very first time ... I will let you know how I do ..

Already got shot down by Google with my first Blog .. unknowingly set up another with a similar title and BANG! shot down to a zero PR and a 30 day penalty for a first offence .. heck it gives me a clear month to get it right this time :-)

Warmly
Roseanne(Rox) van Langenberg

Hi Roseanne

>Andy

ouch, I am an Aaron ;)

>May I impose to ask for a clear definition of the importance of a trailing slash and the ramifications of including one .. or not ..
as per your post above.

what happens if you get some links to the slash version and some to the non slash version you could be splitting up your link popularity...much better to have it all pointing at one location.

>Your articulate writing is refreshing

thanks.

>My concerns are: when I set up my very first blog at Blogger they insisted on the trailing slash at the end of the url ie. mydomain.com/blog/ ... in a nutshell, which is the better or correct practise as far as SEO goes?

if you do the non slashed version your web host is forced to make an extra request to the server. so usually you want to use the slash version if you can.

>Apart from Brad Callen's teachings, your SEO techniques are the only legitimate sources I now refer to in the course of optimising my domain prior to going online for the very first time ... I will let you know how I do ..

I actually wrote the ebook that comes w Brad's software ;)

cheers for liking my stuff...

My cheeks are crimson! - if it means anything at all this is not the first time my overworked head has addressed one of my mentor's incorrectly .. at least I had another successful SEO specialist in mind :-)

On another SEO note, does a clearly written "non-techie" article on the importance of trackbacks and the direct influence on SEO and blog Page Rank, come to mind?

.. one seemingly simple point gets me and most others new to the blogosphere .. For example, your trackback url for this entry is http://www.seobook.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/538 .. where does one have to include this particular URL to be informed of further updates? .. and for Page Rank purposes what is the most effective way to include a trackback URL in a blog?
.. would it be in a short post optimized with the same title, and referencing the trackback URL within the body of text?

Have you at any stage written a short article on the topic of "trackbacks" yourself that we could perhaps use as a point of reference .. to include in an article on "some simple tips to increasing page rank of a Blog"?

The generosity with which you share your knowledge is appreciated!

Roseanne van Langenberg
(an "amateur" seo enthusiast)

Hi Roseanne

>does a clearly written "non-techie" article on the importance of trackbacks and the direct influence on SEO and blog Page Rank, come to mind?

I think trackbacks are much more useful for most in their social implications instead of just as a link gathering mechanism. Plus some sites will use the nofollow thing on their trackbacks.

>where does one have to include this particular URL to be informed of further updates?

it does not give you further updates...trackback is just a way of saying this idea or conversation was referenced or continued at the following location.

most blog software programs have an area to enter in trackbacks. you usually want to also do a regular link to the post in your post which is tracking it back.

>.. and for Page Rank purposes what is the most effective way to include a trackback URL in a blog?

I think tracking back for pagerank is probably a bad call for most. its better to write something interesting at the other end which gets that blog owner to want to read your blog...and thus hopefully send lots of links your way.

>Have you at any stage written a short article on the topic of "trackbacks" yourself that we could perhaps use as a point of reference .. to include in an article on "some simple tips to increasing page rank of a Blog"?

no, and I probably will not either because I think its more important to use trackbacks for their social value instead of some value an arbitrary meter gives. :)

>The generosity with which you share your knowledge is appreciated!

thanks
Aaron