Shorter source code links using <base href>

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clip1493
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:38 am

Shorter source code links using <base href>

Postby clip1493 » Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:38 pm

I'm trying to optimize my source to get a better text/html ratio on my site.

I'll like to know how can I take profit of the <base href> header to short the actual href links generated by MSU.

Example:


Having this header:

Code: Select all

<head>....
<base href="http://www.mywonderfulwebsite.com/store/">


general links can be shortened on the source code like this:

Code: Select all

<a href="en/great-product-1">

which is way much shorter than the actual links that MSU generates:

Code: Select all

<a href="http://www.mywonderfulwebsite.com/store/en/great-product-1">


There is any tweak to do this??? This will improve my text/html ratio!!!
Thanks in advance!
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inveo
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Re: Shorter source code links using <base href>

Postby inveo » Fri Sep 21, 2012 3:50 am

All URLs transformed by MSU are always fully-qualified URLs. It makes your site easier to crawl/index and avoids problems. This is a built-in feature and can not be changed.
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clip1493
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:38 am

Re: Shorter source code links using <base href>

Postby clip1493 » Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:58 am

The right place to show "fully qualified URLS" is the sitemap, not the source code!
Why should we inflate our source code with Fully Qualified URLs that have their deserved place on the sitemaps?

Top ranked sites use relative (no absolute) URLs on their source code:

http://www.google.com
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.youtube.com
http://www.twitter.com
http://www.apple.com
http://www.linked.in
http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.craigslist.org
http://www.pinterest.com

...and the list go on along the top-100 sites on Alexa's Rank. All of them use relative links and not fully qualified urls on the source code!!!! Their 'Full Qualified URL' equivalent is placed on the sitemap.

Are the biggest ones wrong?

You need to add absolute/relative links as an option on the tweaks file so we can set relative links at our risk. Top ranked sites won't be wrong if they do it!.

Before writting you this answer, I have been searching for more than one hour for a source that can prove that relative URL links damage crawling or SEO, but I haven't found a single statement supporting your theory. The only exception are PDF documents, that are crawled better with absolute links, but the PDF issolated issue is not applicable to HTML documents.

In terms of search engine visibility, it does not matter if you use absolute or relative links on your html site. All search engines automatically convert relative links into absolute links without exceptions. According to Google, using absolute links will not make a site rank higher or crawl faster merely because webmasters choose to use absolute links on their sites, but relative links will shorten the code decreasing actual download time and increasing text/html ratio.

Do you have any trustable source to endorse your theory about crawling problems for relative links'??
Last edited by clip1493 on Fri Sep 21, 2012 7:33 am, edited 6 times in total.
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inveo
Inveo Support
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Re: Shorter source code links using <base href>

Postby inveo » Fri Sep 21, 2012 7:17 am

Actually it is much more simple than you think. Most of the stores/sites running MSU do not serve valid W3C source code. We can do nothing with that. In order to keep crawl not confused it is the best to use fully qualified URLs. No worry it does not harm your text/html ration - crawls actually compute it as text/tags ration so with a little bit longer href your site can get ranked very well.
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clip1493
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:38 am

Re: Shorter source code links using <base href>

Postby clip1493 » Fri Sep 21, 2012 8:44 am

Anyway this is a very easy tweak for you to modify. If some stores doesn't validate their code to W3C is their problem... I don't have to pay their faults!!!

I really care about validation and a clean code, and since my store is crowded of internal links, I insisct that I need relative urls on my source code, and it will be not professional from your side to avoid providing us with such easy tweak.

~J~ wrote:In order to keep crawl not confused it is the best to use fully qualified URLs.

This answer is logical for those merchants who never reviewed their duplicate contents in Google webmaster tools and even didn't submited their site there.

But please keep in mind to those who invest many hours per week to review their SEO, crawl health or duplicate content.... I see that the reason of this answer is not because crawlers will find problems recomposing relative links, but the problem is that may bring duplicates to webmasters who don't care or are not experienced....

Not everybody wants to run on an very-safe auto-pilot as you pretend to do. Perhpas we are not experts but we are advanced users, that like me I work full time with developing and SEO.

Tweaks are for those who know what they are doing, and think you have a pending tweak here for the freaks of clean code! Each time I open my store source-code you come to my mind... thanks for your ultra-safety!
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inveo
Inveo Support
Posts: 1285
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:07 pm
Contact:
Contact inveo

Re: Shorter source code links using <base href>

Postby inveo » Fri Sep 21, 2012 10:43 am

One way or another, benefits beat the negatives. We can say it because we and are partners are working with largest stores and forums on The Internet. There is really no harm if you are using fully qualified URLs. We know there are many "expert advises" everywhere but according to our 10 yrs experience in SEO, it is the content and semantics where everyone should take a focus (speaking about on-page factors). Using fully-qualified URLs avoid many problems that no-one can even imagine. Magic SEO URLs has been designed according to real experiences and not on advises. That's why it does the job.
Thank you for all your suggestions anyway.
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