Why Add Slash To End Of Url

As a rule of thumb, you should always include the final / on links to URLs which end in a directory. For example, "http://www.mywebsite.com/mystuff" is shouldbe better written as "http://www.mywebsite.com/mystuff/".
Note that this for directory only, not for urls with file names.
Why add a trailing slash on directory url?
This is because without the slash, the browser will initially try to retrieve a file rather than a directory. When the server realizes that "mystuff" is a directory will it direct the browser to add a slash to the end of the URL and try again. Whilst this doesn't seem too much of a problem, it will slightly increase your bandwidth usage every time it happens, so if you're running a high-traffic site, it's worth adding in those closing slashes.
Take "http://www.mywebsite.com/mystuff" this as an example url. First server would try to find a file called mystuff in the root website directory. If not found it MIGHT add a trailing slash to treat it as a directory and try again.
Some servers are nor forgiving
Some servers are not that forgiving without trailing slash for directory urls. They will simply treat it as file, and when not found would show 404 Page Not Found or Page Cannot be Displayed error.
Best Practice
If you are on Linux server you can use .htaccess file to add the trailing slash on directory urls.
Here are some ways to accomplish this.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %REQUEST_FILENAME !-f
RewriteCond %REQUEST_URI !index.php
RewriteCond %REQUEST_URI !(.*)/$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1/ [L,R=301]
or
RewriteCond %REQUEST_FILENAME !-f
RewriteCond %REQUEST_URI !\..+$
RewriteCond %REQUEST_URI !/$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.mydigitallife.info/$1/ [R=301,L]
or
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/$ /$1 [L]
RewriteCond %THE_REQUEST ^[A-Z]3,9\ /([a-zA-Z0-9]+)
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9]+)$ /%1/? [R=301,L]

By: { Manik | Webmaster Forum }

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Webmaster of Webcosmo Webmaster Forum.