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Writer's pictureBrent D. Payne

Multiple, mismatched base URLs

Having more than one base URL on a webpage, each with distinct URLs, is not considered valid.


Why is this important?

When specifying a base URL through the base element, it sets a reference point for relative URLs within a page. If multiple base elements are present, it leads to invalid HTML, which can disrupt search engine's ability to properly crawl relative URLs.


What does the Optimization check?

Should there be multiple base tags with differing base URLs present on a single internal URL, this Optimization will be activated.


Examples that trigger this Optimization:

Visualize the scenario where the URL is: https://loudinteractive.com/service-page

The Optimization becomes active when the page contains at least two base tags, contradicting each other in the base URL:


<!doctype html><html lang="en">  <head>    <base href="https://loudinteractive.com">    ...    <base href="http://loudinteractive.com">  </head>  <body>...</body></html>


How do you resolve this issue?

To rectify this, eliminate all redundant base tags and make sure only one is defined. Additionally, we recommend avoiding the use of relative URLs entirely (refer to the articles below).


Further reading

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