Absolute URLS instead of relative ones

Hi there

When using Wayfinder, it outputs relatives URLS (ie: /page.html) instead of the full, or absolute, URL (ie: www.mysite.com/page.html). How can I instruct it to output absolute URLs?

Add [(site_url)] before [+wf.link+] in your template

That hasn’t worked for me. I end up with two forward slashes, something like this: http://www.mysite.com//page.html

Also, the active link for some reason comes out like this: http://www.mysite.com//http://www.mysite.com/

Anyone know why?

Why do you want to have full/absolute url’s by the way, while relative url’s just do their work?

I work in SEO, and it’s something we regard as bad practise, the main reasons being:

- search engines might follow absolute ones more easily as they resolve all relative URLs to absolute ones before following them, means that they don’t need to be resolved first
- are better when handling canonicalization issues

I would say that SEOs generally prefer absolute URLs and webmasters prefer relative ones. I#m not willing to risk my Search engine rankings, however small the difference is.

So, does anyone know how I can create absolute URLs using Wayfinder, that output nicely?

Many thanks.

Hmz... I have never got SEO problems while using relative URLs, do you have a article about that as being a bad practise?

if [(site_url)] doesn’t work, simply create a chunk and use that instead.

But seriously, do you really believe Google is so stupid to be tricked by abs. vs. rel. URLs, and rank one higher than the other? That’s just one more silly myth out there in SEO-land (as if there weren’t enough already).

Thanks for the advice - I will create a chunk.

No, not sure that Google would be tricked by anything. However, using absolutes over relatives is the best practise I’m used to working with, as do many other reputed SEOs out there. In my HMO It’s just one small factor of many that contributes to a properly "SEO’ed" site that does well in the SERPs. But hey, each to their own.


Thanks again for suggesting to use chunks

Hello again

Using chunks hasn’t worked as it puts the www.mysite.com in front of the relative URL which is then all outputted as www.mysitename/www.mysitename/mypage.html.

Back to the drawing board...

Please can someone give me an answer as to whether it is possible to instruct Wayfinder to output absolute URLs, rather than relative ones, or if I am trying to achieve somwething that is not yet doable with Wayfinder. Is there a parameter or something else that will enable this to work?

Many thanks

you should use http://www.mysite.com