URL Trailing Slashes - Use Them or Not?

After reviewing the redirects report today in Google Search Console, I faced the question of whether URLs should have trailing slashes. When I initially set up my URL structure, I made a cursory decision to have directory URLs include trailing slashes but not files.

For example, https://www.rachaelkalicun.com/blog/ has a trailing slash but https://www.rachaelkalicun.com/blog/anti-role-models does not. Then I completely forgot about this decision and created internal links to directories without trailing slashes which created redirects.

I decided to confirm the correct choice from an SEO perspective so I could stick to one approach or the other. In this article from 2010, Google states that either way is fine, but from a conventional standpoint, directory URLs include trailing slashes and files do not. I’m good there and just need to make sure my internal linking follows this suggestion.

The home page is a tricky one. No trailing slash is visible in the URL bar in Chrome, yet it appears if you copy and paste the URL. I learned here that it always exists for the home page, but browsers hide it. The canonical version of the home page always includes the slash, while other pages may or may not include it.