when comparing absolute vs. relative links. Which is better for SEO purposes and search engines?

I think using server side code remedies this problem without the increased risk of relative links. There is also the option to run a "replace all" on a domain name in your database or html if you find yourself switching domains.

I'm all about SEO, but I think we should create websites with users in mind, and not so much search engines. At least, that is what Google recommends. As Google rolls out new algorithm updates, websites who have't done this are taking big hits down the SERPs. I think once people realize why Google prefers great content, and their software gets more intelligent, SEO might be much different than what it is today. However, we haven't reached that point entirely.

A successful website should keep both in mind. Especially since good SEO practices today can also promote good UX experience and vice versa (example, always writing image alt attributes)

In this case, the only potential downside I can see for absolute links is on the developer side, not the user's end (although the dev issues are easily remedied with with server-side templating) and since search ability is a factor in the user experience I would argue absolute links are the better choice.

Hey David, you might check out this video by Matt Cutts.

One thing important to know about search engines like Google, is what they consider a web page to be. You might be inclined to believe that if you put about.html onto your website that this is what Google considers to be a page. What Google actually does is look at the pages URL. So example.com/about.html and www.example.com/about.html might use the same html, but are actually two separate pages in Google's eyes. I cannot attest to when accidental duplicate content truly becomes a problem, but I do know that canonical errors can be significant.

You can learn more about canonical errors here: http://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization Basically Google has a number of ways to tell if a web page is good and trust worthy, and when there is a canonical issue, that trust is divided. It is superior to have a very trusted page compared to a couple somewhat trusted pages.

You might also consider adding both the root and www versions of your site to Google Webmaster Tools. You can then change which version is displayed in search results. Adding a sitemap is also helpful for larger sites.