Optimize Large Sites with Tips from Live Search

...asked optimization questions from the folks at microsoft.com and msn.com and he thought the tips were worth sharing to all.

The overall theme behind the tips is canonicalization (or normalization), which is the idea of only picking the best URL when there are several choices. For example, most people would consider these the same URL's:
example.com/
www.example.com/index.html
example.com/home.asp
www.example.com

But technically all of these URL's are different.

Some large sites use complex URL's for tracking, co-branding or e-commerce. However, Jeremiah has outlined some optimization tips that will reduce the risk of duplicate URL's and diluting your link equity:

• Add or remove the trailing /

• Remove the index or default

• Avoid CamelCase - convert your text to lower case

• Remove query string variables or rewrite to readable URLs

• Remove Port Numbers

• Avoid exposing secure HTTPS version

• 301 redirect to the canonical form
• Use a consistent linking convention
• Don't link to multiple versions of the page
• Use absolute links

Del.icio.us

Digg

Reddit

Furl