Use or not to use a slash at the end of a URL?

Using rel="canonical" , is at your discretion. Example:

I insert it in the head of the page, with the original page name in "href":

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.exemplo.com.br" />

Then google will read, and if the content is equal, it will play the entire ranking in the url that is in the href, so in these pages below I have directed it to http://www.exemplo.com.br :

• http://exemplo.com.br
• http://www.exemplo.com.br
• http://www.exemplo.com.br/
• http://www.exemplo.com.br/index.html

The idea that doing a 301 redirect cause pagerank loss is a Myth , and you have nothing to worry about. Any answer in addition will probably be a matter of personal opinion. As long as your urls serve the same content, either have or not the bar at the end .

For the main URL of the domain, I find it unnecessary to place the slash at the end, since some browsers like Chrome already remove the slash automatically from the address bar: See the behavior when typing in the Chrome address bar:

  

http://localhost/

is automatically simplified to

  

localhost

However, there is a caveat regarding the system running on the server side, which may interpret the requested URL differently. For example a system may be using the URL and separating the bars for some internal use.

Example in PHP:

<?php print_r(explode('/', $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'])) ?>

  

http://localhost/index.php/modulo/

Print a first 'module' item and a second empty item

  

http://localhost/index.php/modulo

You will only print a first 'module' item.

That is, for SEO account do not think necessary, the systemic level depends on each case.