Updating all website url to contain a slash at the end

Question

For some technical reasons, one of the websites I am currently working with have to change it's url pattern from www.example.com/about to www.example.com/about/

This website is already indexed by Google, so what would be the best way to go with this process?

Add canonical link to all pages indicating previous(www.example.com/about) urls ? Or is there any way to do this without getting hit by Google for duplicate contents.

Answer 1

To ensure that Google transfers your link juice to the new trailing-slash page after your content is no longer available at the version without the trailing slash, you need to:

1. 301-redirect all of your non-slash pages to the version with the trailing slash. Many web server softwares will do this automatically.
2. (optional) Add a canonical tag to each page that includes the trailing slash (the canonical tag should always contain the current canonical URL of the page).

You will not "get hit" by Google for duplicate content. See The myth of the duplicate content penalty - Search Engine Land. Google chooses the version of your page that it deems to be canonical (the redirect and/or canonical tag lets you specify which one you want), then Google will index that version of the page without any issue or penalty.