Some search engines remove the trailing slash from urls that look like directories – e.g. Yahoo does it for example.

However, you might find that this could result into duplicated content problems when the same page content is accessible under different urls.

And clearly you don’t want that.

But if you’re using Apache on your web server, there’s a simple solution.

Let’s have a look at an example: enarion.net/google/ is indexed in Yahoo as enarion.net/google – which would result in two urls with the same content.

Solution:

The solution is to create a .htaccess rewrite rule that adds the trailing slashes to these urls. Example – redirect all urls that do not have a trailing slash to urls with a trailing slash:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !example.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1/ [L,R=301]

Explanation of the add trailing slash .htaccess rewrite rule:

The first line tells Apache that this is code for the rewrite engine of the mod_rewrite module of Apache. The 2nd line sets the current directory as page root. But the interesting part is:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

makes sure that existing files will not get a slash added. You shouldn’t do the same with directories since this would exlude the rewrite behaviour for existing directories. The line

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !example.php

exludes a sample url that should not be rewritten. This is just an example. If you do not have a file or url that should not be rewritten, remove this line. The condition:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$

and finally fires when a url does not contain a trailing slash.

Now we need to redirect the urls without the trailing slash: pre> RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1/ [L,R=301] does the 301 redirect to the url, with the trailing slash appended.

You should replace domain.com with your url. Make sure that you stick with the right domain name; if unsure, have a look at this article.

Pretty cool, eh?

This article was referenced with gratitude from enarion.net.

Simply go to the MANAGE WEB SITES tab and look for a button that says ADD NEW URL.

A new window will appear where you will enter your data.

1 – The first field is your website or page URL.

This is the full URL of your website, like www.mydomain.com, or it could be the address of a social media page where your content lives. This might be a hub page or squidoo page for example.

2 – In the next field enter the name of your host provider or content host.

This could be the name of where you’re hosting a website like, hostgator.com or in the case of a social media site that’s hosting your content it could be something like Squidoo.com

3 – Next you’ll enter in the control panel login address for the hosting company or content host for this web property.

4 – The next field after that is where you’ll enter the name of the domain registrar for this site. For example GoDaddy or network.

If you’re entering a hub page or something like that into your account, you can leave this field blank.

5 – Ok, next up is you’ll want to enter the web address for the control panel of the domain registrar for the URL you are currently adding to your account.

Again if you’re adding a Squidoo lens or something like that to your account, you can leave this field blank.

6 – If you are parking a domain rather then hosting it somewhere, you can enter in the location of where it’s parked here.

Of course this might not apply to you if your website is active. If so just leave this blank.

Now, as you can see some of the site information fields are optional, like parking but you really want to make sure to at least enter the Site or Page URL, and Hosting control panel URL at the very least.

Otherwise you won’t be able to use your accounts “ one click to launch” feature. This feature gives you the ability to login to your web hosting, registrar, or content host control panels without having to open a bunch of new windows.

Now, once all the information is entered click the SAVE button.

The system will securely take the information you just entered and will populate your account automatically

On a side note, if you ever get stuck and don’t remember what a particular field is for while setting up a new web property, simply hover your mouse over the little blue question marks for an explanation of what you need to enter in the field.

Watch the video here

It’s one of the most powerful screens in your seo monitoring software account as it gives you a “50,000″ overview of your entire network of web properties, competitors and pages instantly!

Now you’ll never have to waste time wading through dozens of tools or stats programs to get the information you need.

The MANAGE WEB SITES tab gives you all the important information about the network of web properties that your monitoring. It will list all the domain names, the IP address of each website, where it’s hosted, whether or not it’s part and who the domain registrar is.

Simply go to the “MANAGE WEB SITES” tab and look for a button that says ADD NEW URL.

You’ll see a pop-up window where you will enter in all of the URL information.

The first field is your website or page URL.

This is the URL of your website, like www.mydomain.com , or the address of a social media page where your content lives. This might be a hub page your squidoo page for example.

The next field is for the name of your Web host or the content host URL.

This could be the name of where you’re hosting your website like, host gator.com or if it’s a social media page that’s hosting your content it could be something like Squidoo.com

The next field is the name of the company who you’ve registered your domain name through. This could be GoDaddy or network solutions or enom.com for example.

Note: If you’re monitoring a hub page or something like that, you can just leave this field blank.

The next field is for the login URL of your domain registrar. Another way to think of this is that this is the control panel URL you use to login to your domain registrar that registered the domain name.

If you don’t know what this says you can leave this blank or don’t recommend it because if it’s blank you won’t be able to use your account one click launch feature login to your domain registrar or Web host.

The last field is where you have your domain parked. Of course this might not apply to you if your website is active in posted just leave this blank but if you register domain name and you’ve got the domain name park somewhere for some reason you can add that here.

Once all the information is entered click the SAVE button.

That set the system will automatically take this information and populate your account for you.

On a side note, if you ever get stuck and don’t remember what a particular field is for while setting up a new website simply hover your mouse over the little blue? Next to the field for an explanation of what you need to enter in the field.

Watch the video here