Folder and folder slash have different PR

[AnonyMouse]

Hi,

I've noticed that
domain/folder
and
domain/folder/

on my site have different PR and backlinks, does that mean that Google doesn't treat them as being the same URL?

[tedster]

Right, they are not the same URL. Two URLs are the same only when they are an exact match, character for character - except for page fragment identifiers that follow a # sign. See the following thread, which you can find in the Hot Topics area [webmasterworld.com], always pinned to the top of this forum's index page.

Canonical URL Issues - including some new ones [webmasterworld.com]

[AnonyMouse]

So basically I should 301 redirect
domain/folder
to
domain/folder/

or vice versa, but pick one?

Is there any downside to having multiple 301 redirects? Does G get suspicious that you're up to something?

[tedster]

A 301 redirect from /folder to /folder/ is standard practice. No problems from Google on that.

[g1smd]

Redirecting to add the / one the end - when the resource is a folder - is a part of the HTTP specification.

Some search engines expect it.