What's the best way to write internal links in sitemap.xml

[vero]

OK, I just read that my sitemap.xml shouldnot have both the domain plus the domain-slash-index.htm else it looks like duplicate content - Thank you all BTW for that info - big help!

I'm now about to change all the links to "index.htm" to go to simply "/" (It's not a big deal, the site's not that huge)

My question now is, is it better to use "/" or "www.whatever.htm/" for links to the home page?

In fact, are you supposed to write out the whole domain for every internal link? I haven't been, I just use <a href="page1.htm">page 1</a> Would it be better to write the links as <a href="www.whatever.htm/page1.htm">page 1</a> ?

Thanks!

[tedster]

It is best to use the full, absolute url.

[vero]

Thanks Tedster.
I think your answer refers to the sitemap.xml, so dumb followup - what about the internal links of the web pages themselves? (not the sitemap, but the actual content pages)
Should they be relative, or absolute, or does it not matter on the content pages? So... Assuming everything is in the same root directory, a link from pagetwo.htm to pageone.htm could be written:

pageone.htm
/pageone.htm
http: // www.---.com/pageone.htm

The first way is easier to test on a hard drive. But is there any difference in terms of SEO?

[Achernar]

Q: Do URLs in the Sitemap need to be completely specified?

Yes. You need to include the protocol (for instance, http) in your URL. You also need to include a trailing slash in your URL if your web server requires one. For example, http://www.example.com/ is a valid URL for a Sitemap, whereas www.example.com is not.

[sitemaps.org...]

By the way, a sitemap contains only internal links.

[edited by: Achernar at 12:32 pm (utc) on May 14, 2008]