Policy Overview
By default, Pages automatically redirects URLs that end with a trailing slash to their non-trailing slash counterparts via a 301 redirect. For example, accessing https://www.your-company.com/business/ will automatically trigger a 301 response redirecting to https://www.your-company.com/business. This behavior is consistent across all sites hosted on the platform.
SEO Implications
There is a common misconception that the presence or absence of a trailing slash can significantly impact SEO performance. However, modern search engines are sophisticated enough to understand both URL formats, provided usage is consistent across a site. This approach ensures consistency by standardizing the URL format, avoiding potential SEO pitfalls such as duplicate content issues.
The decision to exclude or include trailing slashes does not inherently affect SEO performance. What is crucial is consistency in URL structure across your website — which the platform guarantees by default.
Reverse Proxy Implications
As noted above, Pages automatically redirects trailing slash URLs to their non-trailing slash counterparts. Reverse proxies should either strip the trailing slash before sending the request to Pages, or be equipped to handle the redirect being returned. Sitemaps will not include trailing slashes for reverse proxies, since generation happens based on the paths in Pages.