Trailing Slashes Make Web Requests More Efficient

Most people probably type in URLs using the minimum number of characters. If you don’t use a trailing slash on directory names, the Web server goes to extra effort, which is usually not necessary. For instance, the URL “http://www.outre.com/photos” results in a request to the Web server to look for a file named “photos”. If the Web server cannot find the file, it then looks for the default page in a directory named photos. You can short circuit the extra lookup by appending the URL with a trailing slash, as in “http://www.outre.com/photos/”. While you can’t force visitors to your Web site to type in trailing slashes on your URL, you can use them in all your hyperlinks.