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Each URL that points to a directory in a site should end with a slash mark (/).
Explanation
Most pages in a site contain at least one hyperlink to a URL that points to a directory (such as www.proseware.com/news/). If several hyperlinks in which the URL target is the same directory are formatted differently, they may be treated as separate links.
Details
Different hyperlinks in which the URL target is a directory, one of which ends with a slash mark (/), are indexed differently by search engines. For example, https://www.proseware.com/news and "https://www.proseware.com/news/" refer to the same directory, but would be analyzed as pointing to different directories.
Note
Some search engines will correctly resolve differently formatted references to directory if it is declared in a canonical link.
For more information, see WEB1057 - Canonical links are not defined inside the <head> tag section
Example
The following is an example of a correctly formatted hyperlink.
<a href="https://www.proseware.com/news/">Proseware News</a>
See also
Concepts
Hyperlink guidelines for SEO
SEO rules
Search Engine Optimization
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