I just want to get some opinion regarding redirects. Say for example i have a page1.htm that i need to redirect to newpage1.htm, without using a 301, could this penalize my site for having duplicate contents? Or will they consider this as cloaking?
How are you redirecting? I have read that Google likes a 301 redirect and not a 302. I have had no trouble with permanent redirects.
The programmer adds the redirect on the old HTML page to point to the new page. We have lots of old pages that needs to be redirected on new pages under the same domain.
The reason I asked is I have several old webs on freehosting with no access to control panel. We moved one after Christmas last year by putting up the following <html> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="10; URL=http://www.newurl.com/index.htm"> <TITLE>This page has moved</TITLE> </head> <BODY> <P>This Page Has Moved<BR><br> Please update your bookmarks to <A href="http://www.newurl.com/index.htm"> http://www.newurl.com/index.htm</A></p> </body> </html> New site is still not as well indexed as old site was. Sites on which I have used a 301 have suffered no problems with indexing. Shannon
301 redirects are preferred, but 302 redirects are okay if you're redirecting to another page on the same web site. Can you tell us how your programer is doing the redirect?
Either use php or htaccess. If you can't use those then move your hosting somewhere that will accept them.
Meta redirects are generally considered to be okay as long as you set the delay for 10 seconds or more, which Smyrl has done. This still does not signal a permanent change, which is what you are doing with the 301. A 301 redirect is the best method to use, but if you cannot do that because of the free hosting issue, the meta redirect should be the next best option. Free hosting usually means you cannot use .htaccess or ASP or PHP. If you do have the ability to use .htaccess, a 301 redirect for the entire site is probably the best way to go. Like Mad4 said, if you have the ability to move the domain to hosting that allows the use of .htaccess, do it and set up a 301 redirects.
A search engine will never follow the meta redirect though so how is this considered OK? If you meta redirect the old site will stay in the index and the new page will not have the links passed on from the old site. If your host does not support it then just go to your registrar and point the domain at the new site. If you are on blogspot or something then a meta redirect is the only option.
The programmer showed me this code on how he does the meta redirect: HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="10; URL=http://www.newurl.com/index.htm"> <TITLE>Redirected to new page</TITLE> </head> We are redirecting hundreds or near to a thousand pages. These old pages have high rankings on the search engines which i believe we are getting most of the traffic from. and now scared that traffic will drop because of these redirects.According to them they can't do 301 for some reason. And now they proceeded with these meta redirects. Need professional advice on this as my job depends a lot on the traffic. huhu!
i think the traffic will not drop because it has redirection, because the traffic from your old pages that ranks high will go to a page where you point your redirection.as long you are doing permanent redirect there is no penalty.
Well, that's the problem. They are not doing "permanent redirect" for some reasons. Hey Ed, wat happened to your YM by the way. Say hi to our friend "K"
ok NP..hmmm may be your developer i insane! talk to your SEO supervisor, manager, team lead , etc. about it... good luck!
This is 100% the wrong way to do it. You are guaranteed to lose the rankings for your old pages at best. At worst your site will be penalised for all the redirects. You need to employ a proper SEO to do this for you. Don't employ a programmer to do something they clearly know nothing about.
Ok thanks mad4. I already stopped them from doing this and insisted the 301. I was thinking that this will really penalise the sites.
Is it possible to upgrade your hosting package so you can use a .htaccess or PHP files? It might sound odd but if you've got thousands of indexed pages then it would definitely be worth buying a $10 upgrade so you can use 301's.
Yea i agree with that. I'm not really sure if their inability to do the 301's (accdg to the programmer) has something to do with the hosting package. Or it could be that he jz doesn't know how to 301.