Absolute Links vs. Relative Links – SEO Value

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.

Google crawlers follow the internal links on your pages to crawl more dip pages on your site. There is a limited number of URLs that Google crawlers crawl due to the actual cost involved in it. Based on this fact if you have a million pages on your site and during the crawl if Google comes across an issue more frequently, then it would be more logical for them to leave the site.

This situation can be avoided by using the absolute URL to help Google streamline the crawling process, which will not only save time but also encourage it to come back more often and crawl more pages.