Absolute vs Relative URL Interlinking Observation & Question
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So I've read a few articles about this here on SEOMOZ and other sites.
I understand the benefit of relative url linking from a developer's point view. I've also read that using either internal linking methods doesn't really have any real SEO benefits or cons that would impact your rankings greatly. (Except with the slight chance of getting traffic and backlinks from a scraper site.)
But I'm seeing examples where this may not be true.
I did a search for 5 star hotels in Vegas in google.
Some of the top results were Hotels.com and Expedia.com
Priceline.com was on the second page.
I used the search operator link: to Hotels.com, Expedia.com and Priceline.com vegas hotel pages respectively:
Hotels.com: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&site=webhp&q=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotels.com%2Fde1504033-st5%2Ffive-star-hotels-las-vegas-nevada%2F&oq=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotels.com%2Fde1504033-st5%2Ffive-star-hotels-las-vegas-nevada%2F&gs_l=serp.3...3650.7043.0.7972.8.7.1.0.0.0.90.363.7.7.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1j2.4kALxt0jpxI
Expedia.com: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&site=webhp&q=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.expedia.com%2F5Star-Las-Vegas-Hotels.s50-0-d178276.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels&oq=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.expedia.com%2F5Star-Las-Vegas-Hotels.s50-0-d178276.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels&gs_l=serp.3...1681.3746.0.4076.6.6.0.0.0.0.100.348.5j1.6.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1j2.KxqwbH-YFV0
The results were that priceline had no backlinks internally or externally to their vegas page. Whereas their competitors did, most of which were from their own internal pages. Looking at priceline's linking structure and architecture, they use a relative url structure and sessions ids to link to various pages. Their competitors don't. Wouldn't you argue that this may be adversely affecting their rankings. I know other things are to be factored in if you dig deeper. But that seems to be a major difference. It just seems that their content management system or how their site is coded isn't really passing link juice.
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Thanks Tammy. It's good to have a second opinion confirming my suspicions. I agree the whole structure of the site needs a lot of work.
Thanks again!
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I wouldn't argue at all, I would agree. It is an old school SEO tidbit that you should not use relative URL's when building a site structure with the silo level landing pages. While the over all theme of the page is beneficial for general terms, you are losing valuable page rank/ link juice and the capability of ranking for long tail keywords. While the over all structure of the site as a whole needs work, and entire overhaul and recommendations for a virtual cross linking to the top level landing pages and specific content relevant to those terms.
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