When inserting links, does it hurt seo to have just the name of the html page rather than the whole address?

i.e.

<a href="index.html">  OR  <a href="http://www.cupantileandpaint.com">

and also, would it hurt seo to have a link setup that's already an open page,

<a href="#">

leave the link dead, but keep an href format to maintain link characteristics

In answer to your first question, the absolute address. Google's information on the subject. In the case of your specific example, use the latter since it will avoid any possible duplicate content issues.

Linking to an anchor point (the second question) won't hurt anything either. It's just an anchor point. It's not a new page or anything.

I don't think it would hurt... But I'd rather choose this format... <a href="http://www.cupantileandpaint.com">

I would agree to the rest

<a href="http://www.cupantileandpaint.com">


is a better and safer option .

Originally Posted by MattCoops

When inserting links, does it hurt seo to have just the name of the html page rather than the whole address?

i.e.

<a href="index.html">  OR  <a href="http://www.cupantileandpaint.com">

actually it should be

<a href="/">  OR  <a href="http://www.cupantileandpaint.com">

Never link to the index page name.

and neither is better or worse. They are both exactly the same.

I dunno about that, Hirst. SEO aside, I use the latter because I have a local copy and a server copy of anything I do. Since my local paths are all of the form http://localhost/subdirectory/ and my server copies are all of the form http://www.domain.com/ , I find that putting using a variable for the absolute path of the home page root works the best (I call it Page_Root...go figure). <a href="/"> wouldn't work on the localhost because I'd end up back at http://localhost/ .

I've had my Martha Stewart moment for the day. And that's a GOOD thing.

I would go with the long urls (starting http) because people keep complaining about beign scraped.

Thanks ya'll

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

I would go with the long urls (starting http) because people keep complaining about beign scraped.

That's another good reason too, to some extent. At least if you get scraped, the lazier scrapers will include your backlinks and inadvertently expose themselves and give you credit.

Originally Posted by MattCoops

Thanks ya'll

You're welcome, eh?

(Sweet, two nationalistic stereotypes in the same thread.)

yea, what's that aboot?

heh Okay, I deserved that.