Correctly Dealing With Redirects
-
Hi,
Hope someone might be able to help me with this.
One of our sites was built badly and the orginal url structure was to have mydomain.com/index.php but these have been changed to mydomain.com by a developer who has put the redirects in place.
The problem is that in webmaster tools my link count has dropped to 18 from nearly 2300.
I am assuming that Google is not seeing the redirect, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
-
Just adding to what the others have said, but there could be a number of reasons:
- WMT is slow
- You actually lost the links
- The links aren't being redirected properly, i.e. multiple hops, no redirect at all
- 302's and other redirection CAN actually show up in WMT, you'll see it listed as "via this intermediary link....
The advice the others gave is solid, you'll need to double check with some kind of HTTP response code tool to check. Please supply a URL.
Cheers,
Dave
-
I would install Fiddler and check the header response of your URLs. Otherwise screamingfrog is the way to go. Oleg might be right in that the developer might have set 302 redirects. If you post the URL we could confirm for you.
In .htaccess if the redirect doesn't explicitly end with the R=301 directive, typically [R=301,L] then the default is a 302 temporary redirect which doesn't pass on link value.
Also for an accurate assessment of links I would use Open Site Explorer.
-
Make sure it is a 301 redirect, not a 302 redirect.
It also takes a couple weeks for google to reindex the new urls and adjust its rankings/stats.
-
Is it possible that some of the pages have inadvertently had a noindex meta tag added to them or that certain pages are blocked in error by your robots.txt? Without your site URL it is very difficult for any of us to ascertain the issue.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Fitness- china.com 301 Redirects
After I switched to 301, will the backlinks obtained by the previous domain name be transferred to the new URL? our Weight Machine new URL https://www.fitness-china.com/weight-machine
Link Building | | ahislop5740 -
Very old site wanting a revamp - how to handle all the redirects/URL changes
Hi all, I have a very very old site, that requires a facelift (going from an old clunky CMS to wordpress). A problem I know I am going to face is that this site has a very poor URL structure (www.site.com/section/1/section/ etc) which I plan on cleaning up. but how do I handle the 100+ backlinks this website has point to such links? If someone could point me in the direction of an article or such that would be great. Thanks,
Link Building | | Greenroads0 -
How to build links for a domain name that is redirected to another url?
I'm helping a friend build links to his site because he recently moved across country. His primary domain isn't very SEO friendly (shef1.com) so he registered another domain (stephenshefrinphotography.com). Shef1.com has been around for awhile and has at least been crawled with a page rank of 1 so we decided to keep shef1.com as the main website and redirect stephenshefrinphotography.com to it. So for SEO sake I know it's best to at least have a keyword in your URL so I have been using the url stephenshefrinphotography.com in my link building efforts for local directories and blog comments. Is this the right way to go about this or should I be using the main url shef1.com? He had virtually no backlinks until I started helping him but the ones I have created over the last month are not showing up on the link analysis in my campaigns. I just want to make sure my efforts aren't in vain. Advice please. Thanks!
Link Building | | mrsmelmitch0 -
Using a temp redirect or a link to another domain.
Helloooooooo (hey, we're in SEO...surely we need some sound effects as told in dramatic word elongation?) //First - background. I work on a site that does pretty well with search visibility naturally (by 'naturally', I mean it didn't need a lot of optimisation due to the relationships it has with its link network). I work on a site that sells a particular product - green widgets will do - as part of its verticals. Traffic to this section is great, and tends to convert rather well. These green widgets, however, are also part of another site that's part of the client I work for. The larger company was interested to understand what would happen to their conversions if these green widget visits were sent to them instead of staying on-site (namely, that's because they turn a bigger profit over there). So they set up a link on the page on my site to a landing page on theirs. Sure enough, conversions stayed the same on their site, and showed there may be value in keeping that flow active. //Second - question. I see a few options which mainly revolve around not changing anything, but the bigger part of company wants to see that change. My question is this: long term, should I keep the green widgets section of my site there, and use a link that goes to green widgets on the other site, or should I 302 it until they decide on what they want to do with the relationship between the sites? I know...a bit convoluted, but I'd love to get some ideas on what others have experienced in these situations, and what kinds of outcomes can help both sites remain strong. Thanks a ton, guys.
Link Building | | aroach0 -
Redirecting a previously expired domain - any SEO benefits?
Is there any SEO benefits from registering a previously expired domain name that is still linked to form an authorative source and 301 redirecting it to another site on a similar subject? Obviously first benefit is giving users who are clicking on the link to be sent to a site on a similar subject that just to a dead link.
Link Building | | Wardy0 -
Will redirecting 250 linking domains to a new website from an old website freak Google out?
Prior to my accepting a project, the client decided to change the name of their company and purchased a new domain name to match. They hired a designer to build their new company site which has now been up and running for a little under 12 months. Up to this point they have done a good job of slowly redirecting small handfuls of linking domains from the old site to the new. They want to make one last push and point the remaining 250 linking domains from their old site to their new site. Will redirecting 250 linking domains to a new website from an old website freak Google out? If so, how many domains should be redirected at one time? My main concern is not wanting to upset Google and see the floor fall out on current keyword rankings, domain authority and page rank, etc.
Link Building | | 5outhpaw0 -
Are backlinks to a domain that redirects useless?
I am working on trying to get backlinks. We are currently redirecting a few Domains to our current domain name. One of the Domains that is redirecting is the main Domain, we will be advertising in the near future. Can I send backlinks to the redirected URL or does it only carry link juice if it is to the main Domain?
Link Building | | hfranz0 -
Redirect
A few pages get a lot of external links and rank well (when site:domain.com) but i do not want that those pages rank well (these are blog pages and we are in E-commerce) Can i redirect these pages to other pages which are more important to me and customers because google see only the link or is google so smart that they see a realtion between the page from which i get the links and to the page in my webste In that case i rename the old pages.
Link Building | | turnon0