SiteAud!tLint Support

Opportunity Technical SEO

URL contains a double slash

Severity
Opportunity
Impact
Medium
Effort to fix
Low
Issue code
url_double_slash

Why it matters

Double slashes in the path usually come from template bugs and can create duplicate URLs.

How to fix it

Fix the link or template that generates the double slash.

What this means

The URL's path contains two slashes in a row, for example https://example.com/blog//seo-tips. The // after https: is normal and not flagged. A double slash in the path almost always comes from a mistake in how links are built.

Why it matters

  • Duplicate URLs. Many servers return the same page for /blog/seo-tips and /blog//seo-tips, so both can be crawled and indexed.
  • Broken relative links. Relative paths on a page reached through // resolve to the wrong folder.
  • Wasted crawling when the mistake is in a template, because every page links to the extra version.

Common causes

  • Joining strings in a template: a base URL ending in / plus a path starting with /, such as {{ site_url }}/{{ path }} when site_url already ends in a slash.
  • An empty folder value, such as a missing category, leaving /shop//product-name.
  • A rewrite or redirect rule that adds a slash to a path that already has one.

How to fix it

  1. Use a custom source search for // inside your own domain's links to find which templates produce them. See Custom source search.
  2. Fix the template: trim the trailing slash from the base URL, or use your framework's URL helper instead of joining strings.
  3. Add a server rule that 301 redirects any path containing // to the single-slash version, so old links still land in the right place.
  4. Check that canonical tags never contain a double slash.

Verify the fix

Recrawl. Once the template is fixed, the flagged URLs are no longer linked and drop out of the crawl. If some remain, the URL Structure view in Pages and the URL details show which pages still link to them.

How it affects your score

Finding this issue on any page costs the Technical SEO score 0.5 points, plus up to 4 more depending on the share of crawled pages affected. A smaller improvement with a modest effect on its own.

Find the affected URLs

Open Crawl > Issues and pick URL contains a double slash. Each affected URL is listed with its evidence, and Copy URLs or Export URLs hands the list to a developer. The issue also appears in the Action Plan, ranked by impact (medium) and effort (low), and in the issues CSV under the code url_double_slash. After fixing, run a new audit and use Compare to confirm the URLs moved to fixed.

Guides that cover this issue