Set base-href to subfolders - problems?

[Vivamedia]

A customer is using the <base>-tag in an odd way:

<base href="http://domain.com/1.0.0/1/1/">

My own theory is that the subfolders are added as the root because of revision control.

CSS, images and internal links are used like this:

internal link

I ran a test with Xenu Link Sleuth and found many broken links on the site, but I can't say if it is due to the base-tag.

I have read that the base-tag may cause problems in some browsers, but is this usage of base-tag bad in some SEO-perspective? I have a lot of problems with this customer and I want to know if the base-tag is a part of it.

[Vivamedia]

Hi Highland!

I know that relative URLs is anything but good, especially when you also use URL rewrite.

The only question is how Google will react to this?

Thanks for your answer!

[Vivamedia]

Hi Cyrus and thanks for your answer!

The client is using the base tag on all pages on the site, but with different URLs. For example:

Root page: <base href="http://domain.com/1.0.1.0/2/1/">

Subpage:
<base href="http://domain.com/1.0.1.0/5/1/"> OR
<base href="http://domain.com/1.0.1.0/13/1/">

Productpage:
<base href="http://domain.com/1.0.1.0/14/1/">

As you can se they are using a lot of different base locations and unfortunately we are unable to change the base URL and test.

We have problems with both broken links and rankings. Whenever a new version of the system is created, all base URLs will be changed. This may mean that old links are still there and will be broken.

What do you think Cyrus, can this hurt us from a SEO perspective? It must be confusing for Google with all the strange base URLs?

I think the best would be to rebuild the structure and remove the base tag!

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Most of the time you don't need to specify a base URL. The browser already knows this location. In some situations defining a base is helpful, such as mirrored sites when the URL used is not the same URL that is needed to resolve files.

Is your clients using a universal base tag that is the same across the entire site? I can't tell from the question, but this is a common situation that could potentially cause problems.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using a base tag. Most of the time, if you use it, you simply want to set it to the URL of the current page.That said, to avoid complications, the only time you really want to use the Base tag is when relative URLs wouldn't work without it.

You might want to test how the links on your site resolve and see if removing or modifying the base tag helps clear up your broken links.

[Highland]

Those are some sloppy URLs. I especially advise people to avoid the problems of relative paths in ANY URL. And, yes, <base> probably isn't helping.

Links starting with / are fine. That's the root of your site. Anything using "../" should be nixed and use a fixed path. And never, ever use "./".