Ok. Heres the deal. I read a lil while back from different sources, that, having a javascript redirect on your page(s) will decrease the value of that page and can drop the rank of the site... So i was wondering, since php is backend, does the redirect via this method get a pass? ALSO, I know there is another method aside from scripting to redirect your site. Its done in the Cpanel... I did it a while back, but forgot how to navigate it... So: 1. Can anyone refresh my memory on this? 2. Does this method of redirection hurt search engine optimization? or atleast google optimization.
There are three common types of redirect: 1) A META redirect, which occurs in the HTML code on your page 2) A JavaScript redirect, which occurs in JavaScript 3) A 301 PERMANENT server-side redirect, which occurs in PHP / Apache 4) A 302 TEMPORARY server-side redirect, which occurs in PHP / Apache The first two are generally considered bad for SEO, because search engines don't know how to interpret them and sometimes won't follow them. They also pass little / no PageRank. The second two are preferred, and generally speaking you probably want a 301 redirect - which tells the search engine the content has permanently moved and they should use the new address. 302s should only be used if the content has temporarily moved and you still want to use the existing address. Note that both of these redirects also reduce the amount of PageRank passed though - compared to landing directly on the page. A 301 redirect can be implemented using the .htaccess file in Apache, or in code in PHP - there are loads of tutorials in Google if you search for "301 redirect php". You can also test what sort of response you're giving to the search engines with a tool like WebSniffer (http://web-sniffer.net/). If it says 200 then it's a JavaScript or META redirect. Otherwise it will say 301 or 302.
The best option is 301 redirect in .htaccess file. This way you will retain PR of old page. Don't even think of meta refresh or javascript redirect.
Thanx, carleisenstein & SuccessSuccess.. I have added to your reps!. That is exactly what I needed to know... I now have another question in relation to this line: "Note that both of these redirects also reduce the amount of PageRank passed though - compared to landing directly on the page." Do you mean it reduces the pagerank of the domain that is being forwarded FROM, or it reduces the pagerank of the domain it is being Redirected TO? Thanx in advance....
I think the 301 redirection would hurt neither the source page nor the destination page. 301 redirection is recommended by search engines and it is there for this purpose. It would keep the values of PR and SERP. Have a nice day,
It doesn't really *hurt* anyone, but it does have a small impact on the PageRank passed to your site. So if www.somesite.com links to www.yoursite.com/somepage/ and www.yoursite.com/somepage/ 301 redirects to www.yoursite.com/anotherpage/ then: 1) www.somesite.com isn't affected at all by the redirect - it's just an outbound link like any other. 2) www.yoursite.com/somepage/ will not be indexed or ranked at all, and will not receive any PageRank 3) www.yoursite.com/anotherpage/ will be indexed and ranked, but will receive slightly less PageRank from the link than it would have if www.somesite.com had linked to it directly. Hidden away in this interview Matt Cutts from Google confirms that passing a link through a 301 does "decay" PageRank, compared to a direct link: http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts-012510.shtml