slash hash slash

Question

Is there any advantage to have a URL with a hash written with slashes around it. For example:

http://www.example.com/#/profile

Does it SEO better? I thought anything after a slash was not indexed.

Answer 1

The hash indicates the start of the "fragment" portion of the Uri, the part the indicates where within the page to jump down to.

I don't see why any search engine spider would take anything after the hash into consideration.

Answer 2

You'll want to avoid using fragments (anything after the hash mark) to indicate major parts of your site's content since Google and other search engines will generally disregard them completely.

However, most uses of URL fragments (like the example you posted) involve dynamically loading AJAX content onto the page; the web app modifies the fragment so that visitors can still use the back button or bookmark the page, but the app's state won't be lost. In your example, the fragment is probably used for a private section of the site that won't be indexed by search engines, so using fragments has no effect on SEO.

Bottom line: for content you want indexed, don't use hash marks. If you want to speed up your UI with AJAX content in a private section of your site, then go right ahead.

Answer 3

Is there any advantage of having the slash hash slash "/#/" rule as apposed to the using just /#somestring