Entries from Search Engine Roundtable tagged with 'redirects'

Does Google Handle Canonical Issues Fully?

Tedster, WebmasterWorld's Administrator, posted an excellent thread at WebmasterWorld asking how do you think Google handles the canonical issues they find on their own? By that he means, if webmasters don't use a 301 redirect or use Google's canonical header...

Is Microsoft Bing Finally Figuring Out 301 Redirects?

One thing I always see in the search optimization forums are complaints about how Microsoft Bing handles 301 redirects. I actually stopped covering the complaints because I saw them all too often. Today, I have some possible good news. Steve,...

Google Soon To Allow Cross Domain Canonical Tag: This Is Big

Yesterday, I reported at Search Engine Land that Google is going to allow cross domain canonical tag. This means, if you have two sites (probably verified under the same webmaster tools account), you will be able to tell Google, all...

When Should You Undo a 301 Redirect?

A thread at WebmasterWorld has a webmaster who is getting a bit nervous that the 301 redirects he set up for a site won't be the best bet in the long run for his end goals. In summary, his original...

Matt Cutts Uses His Blog To Mess With Google Search

In August 2005, Matt Cutts, the head of search quality at Google, launched his blog at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/. Notice, if you click on that URL, you are redirected to http://www.dullest.com/blog/. Why? Well, Matt explained that he was to switch things around,...

The Redesign SEO "Honeymoon Period"

An interesting WebmasterWorld thread discusses the phenomenon of redesigning a site, with brand new URL structure, 301 redirecting the old URLs to the new, and seeing an almost immediate boost in rankings at Google.com. In fact, WebmasterWorld moderator, minnapple, has...

Are Low Google AdWords Quality Scores Due to "Penalties"?

You don't hear the word "penalty" come up much when you are talking about Google's AdWords program. I hear it all the time with Google's web search algorithm, but rarely when it comes to Google's AdWords quality score algorithm. In...

My Mobile Site Is Duplicate Content. Oh No!

A Google Webmaster Help thread has discussion around a webmaster who noticed Google is treating his mobile site as a duplicate site to his main site. This user has his mobile site on a subdomain of m.domain.com, where his main...

My Pages Are Dropping Out of Google: What Do I Do?

Over the course of the past few months, I have hearing buzz from the forums and from people in the SEO industry that Google is dropping pages out of their index. How do these people know? Well, when they do...

How To Handle Redirecting default.asp in IIS? Duplicate Content

A Google Groups thread has discussion from SEOs and a Googler on the topic of removing the default.asp from your web site, through a redirect method on an IIS server. What is the typical issue with IIS servers and redirecting?...

Major Google SEO Change: Google Prefers You Don't Use URL Rewrites

The Google blog has officially said that they prefer that in most cases, you should not use rewrites to change your dynamic URLs to static looking URLs. In my opinion, this is a major 180° on basic SEO practices. SEO...

Using Redirects to Move Your Site to a New Domain

In one of the detailed Google Popular Picks thread, Googlers discuss the issue of redirects. In March, the Google Webmaster Central team talked about moving your site from one location to another. In this post, however, JohnMu gives more insight...

Out of Stock? Don't Delete or Redirect That Web Page!

A common issue for e-commerce sites is what to do when an item goes out of stock. Do you delete the page? Do you redirect the page somewhere else? Do you just tell the user the item is out of...

404 or 301 Your Old Pages? Which is Best For SEO?

There is a very large discussion at Sphinn around a Search Engine Journal post named How to Get Rid of Multiple Subpages & Not Get Penalized. The discussion is around the topics of using different techniques when removing or redirecting...

The Possible Google Penalties Associated With Bad 301 Redirects

In a WebmasterWorld thread, the effects of 301 redirects are discussed. Can you be penalized? Apparently, the answer is yes. Tedster notes that a number of webmasters, when they discovered the potential of 301 redirects, "started throwing [them] around like...

Google Strongly Recommends 301 Redirect Over Meta Refresh Redirects

Moving document and file locations on the web is fairly common. So what do you do when you have to communicate the move to your users and the search engines? You set up a redirect. There is no question that...

Microsoft's Live Search Still Can't Work Out 301 Permanent Redirects

We have been reporting about Microsoft's issues with handling 301 permanent redirects since September 2006. We came back to the issue this past December but still, Webmasters are complaining at the lack of support for 301 redirects in Microsoft's Live...

Tracking 302 Redirects & SEO Progress

A HighRankings Forums thread has one member reporting the "diary" of a 302 redirect. Here is the timeline so far: 12/19/07: 302 Re-direct implemented from www.oldsite.com to www.newsite.com 12/20/07: New site name (not url - so BRAND NAME rather than...

Double Redirects May Take Google More Time To Pick Up On

Permanent redirects, also known as 301 redirects, are the life blood for webmasters when they make changes to their URL structures. It is common practice and knowledge, that when you change a URL from one location to a new location,...

Did Yahoo Search Change How They Handle 301 Redirects?

Brian Turner is reporting at a Platinax Forum that Yahoo has changed the way they handle 301 redirects. In the past, according to Yahoo! Redirect Handling Rules (PDF File), a 301 from Site A to Site B, Yahoo would keep...

Got Several Domains? 301 Redirect them to Your Main Domain

Are 301s a bad idea? Why or when should you use them? Does Google penalize you if you get trigger happy and 301 everything in sight? Two WebmasterWorld threads ask the same questions. In the first thread, a forum member...

Are 404 Errors Bad for SEO?

A Cre8asite Forums member noticed that his site is reporting 404 errors when in Google Webmaster Tools. What can he do about it? Is it bad from an SEO standpoint? First of all, a bit of troubleshooting is recommended. You...

Do "Chained" 301 Redirects Not Carry Link Popularity Over in Google?

A WebmasterWorld thread discusses the implementation of 301 redirects on a newly constructed site. WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, adds to the discussion that he has seen that a chain of 301 redirects does not always pass the link popularity along. For...

How Long Should You Keep a 302 Redirect in Place?

Matt McGee recently posted on Cre8asite Forums asking how long a 302 redirect should stay in place -- because if it's there for too long, he is afraid that search engines will see the redirect as a permanent 301 redirect....

Ask.com Still Indexing Old Pages That Were 301 Redirected Years Ago

With all the new buzz around Ask.com and their campaigns, TV commercials and new user interface, a WebmasterWorld thread and Search Engine Roundtable Forums thread decided to take a look at a fundamental issue with their indexer. Robert Charlton, WebmasterWorld...

Can Too Many 301 Redirects Hurt Your SEO Efforts?

A Cre8asite Forums thread asks if having too many 301 redirects from OLD site to NEW site can hurt you in the search results. It is a good question, one which administrator Ammon Johns (aka Black_Knight) comes out to answer....

A Drop in Traffic After Relaunching a SEO Friendly Version of a Site

You follow all the rules, you test all the scenarios, you make your version two site 100% search engine friendly. Then you launch the site and bam, your search referrals drop 60%. How could this of happened? That is the...

Live.com Indexing 301 Redirects As Redirects?

A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that MSN Search (aka Live.com) is indexing permanent 301 redirects. What this means is that if you search on a term or command that triggers the domain that is 301ed to show up, it will...

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