Main page redirect affecting search results?
-
Question.... A recent change was made to our page www.BGU.edu by a marketing person. So now when you type in www.BGU.edu it actually redirects to a different page www.BGU.edu/inquiry
This is a really bad idea isn't it? I do not know enough about SEO to know a lot, and just joined SEOmoz but do I need to tell the admin to change it back?
-
Thank-you!
-
Ah that's ok I'm newbie myself..
When you go to a webpage the website returns a code to let the browser or Google, or who ever is browsing what the current status of the webpage is. Normally you go to a webpage and you are returned a 200, meaning everything is ok, but you dont need to know it all the time so the browser hides it.
If you try and find a page that is not there the server returns a 404 code, often people designing websites try and redirect you to a customised 404 code/error page, so that they can try and retain you, but in the background the server is returning a 404 code to tell the browser it couldn't find the page it wanted.
With a 301 redirect, what we do is force who ever is trying to access that page to go to another page and tell them that its permanent by telling the server to issue a 301 code.
This tells Google that the page is moved to a new location and should be considered the same page for future purposes. Its kinda like going to the post office to tell them you have moved address and to forward all your mail on.
Now you normally do a 301 redirect using a .htaccess file, but that's a whole other can of worms
Although saying all that I'd assumed it was a 301 but I wanted to give you a tool to check them out yourself and tested it. The website is showing a 302 code which is a temporary redirect. Very bad... but then you new you that
Use this http://web-sniffer.net/ and look mid way down under the yellow bar..
Adam
-
Very, very bad idea. To make matters even worse, they've used a 302-redirect, which further compromises the ability of the home page to hold it's rank.
Yes, you need to have the admin change it back, as there doesn't seem to have been any compelling reason for the change. The one bright side is that, because the 302 redirect was used, it will be easier to change it back.
Paul
-
What is the 301? Sorry for being a newbie!
-
Agreed very bad, looks really odd too.
What if you don't have an inquiry but to gain an overall impression of the site?
You could do the same thing with a jquery overlay or just a box for inquiries, but I always think the home page should encapsulate the business in an instant then give you direction for more resources. Why not have a prominent link to the inquiry, or generate lead pages on some of you keywords etc....
Adam
p.s. also all your links to the home page are going to leak link juice with the 301 in place.
-
Thank-you! This is a very small Christian grad school, who is ministry focused not tech focused. I am working with them in social media (which is my area of expertise) but the webpage is such a mess I have to find some solutions there to to make the social media pay off...
Thank-you for making my case clearly.
Fortunatly the IT person is very responsive to my suggestions, even though they do not appear to have much SEO or page management experience.
I have always understood that not only is it rude, but that now they are not getting the main index page indexed... A massive Faux Pas!
-
This is a really bad idea isn't it? In my opinion, it is a very bad idea.
It's best to keep the site locked up so that the marketing people can't monkey with it.
Universities are really bad about managing websites. They change department URLs from egol.edu/chemistry to chemistry.egol.edu and then to chem.egol.edu and then to egol.edu/chem
Somebody gets the idea that they need to change the URLs so they then run wild with it.
Then, thousands of high schools, other universities and other webmasters have linked to these various URLs, which have been changed at whim without redirects. It is really rude to the people who have linked to you and it shows that the university webteam do not plan and don't know what they are doing and are inconsiderate about the people who are willing to send them traffic.
I have a website that links to lots of university resources and we have to check those links every year because university marketing monkeys keep changing them. I am betting that 20 to 30% of the URLs must be edited every year.
Sorry for the rant.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Redesign Just Starting - Should I Leave The Previous Incomplete Site or Setup A Temporary Holding Page and Redirect Previous URL'S?
Hi All I've picked up a new website project and wanted to ask about the best way to proceed with the current site during the development process. The current site is incomplete although it has been live for a while and has over 80 pages in the sitemap. Link to site https://tinyurl.com/ychwftup The business owner wants to take down the current site and simply add a landing page stating "new website coming soon". From an SEO perspective, am I better to keep the current site live until the new site is ready? Or would it not make any difference if I setup the landing page and add 301 redirects from each page in the sitemap to the landing page. Many Thanks In Advance For Any Assistance
Web Design | | ruislip180 -
Log-in page ranking but not homepage
Our homepage is outranked by log-in page for "primary keyword" in Google search results; for which actually our homepage was optimised. I have gone through the other answers for the same question here. But I couldn't find them related with our website. We are not over optimised. We have link from top navigation menu of blog to our homepage. Does this causing this?
Web Design | | vtmoz1 -
I want to create a 301 redirect on a WordPress site, nothing's working...
Hello all, I'm hoping someone out there can give me a hand with this. I'm trying to modify my .htaccess file so that the site will go from maxcarnagemusic.com to www.maxcarnagemusic.com and also, so viewers will be redirected to www.maxcarnagemusic.com/home when they try to access the site. I've tried a few different things, including adding the 301 redirect plugin for Wordpress, but nothing seems to work. Can someone out there show/tell me how to create an htaccess file that will execute as much. I apologize in advance, my Apache experience is very, very limited. Thank you all in advance!
Web Design | | maxcarnage0 -
Spaces at beginning of title tag - negatively affect the optimization of the page?
For some reason, our title tags have a long space after the beginning title tag and before the text appears. The beginning title tag is on one line, then a break, a tab and then the content of the title tag. I'm pretty sure this is not good and is affecting optimization of the page. Am I correct or is this not an issue and does not need to be fixed? Example: | <title></span></p> <p> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="line-number"> </td> <td class="line-content"> First keyword</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></title> |
Web Design | | CFSSEO0 -
Redirects (301/302) versus errors (404)
I am not able to convincingly decide between using redirects versus using 404 errors. People are giving varied opinions. Here are my cases 1. Coding errors - we put out a bad link a. Some people are saying redirect to home page; the user at least has something to do PLUS more importantly it does NOT hurt your SEO ranking. b. Counter - the page ain't there. Return 404 2. Product removed - link1 to product 1 was out there. We removed product1; so link1 is also gone. It is either lying in people's bookmarks, OR because of coding errors we left it hanging out at some places on our site.
Web Design | | proptiger0 -
301 Redirect ! Joomla Pages, Already ranking. ( just wanted to change the url
hey guys hope everyone had a new year. I am ranking for a page on my site that i want to ( not specifically move ), but just change the url name: It is too long i think and i want to move it from one portion of my architecture to another menu. I have never physically done a 301 redirect myself, always had someone do it for me. I wanted some pointers. Since it is a fairly new site 4 months old! What are my options. Do i need to 301 redirect the page, if i am changing the Structure and AI of my site, or can i just change the url as is and it will still get ranked? How do i keep that url put delete the page and redirect it ? Sorry its very simple but i wanted to get the communities help to continue on ! Best Wishes HAmpig
Web Design | | BizDetox0 -
Keywords in the page url for best SEO
Hello all, I am working in the keywors structure of a web and I have the following doubt: If I want to target these keywords: great food madrid and my website is: http://www.madridlive.com I do not know if I should keep either: OPTION 1: page url: www.madridlive.com/great-food-madrid or OPTION 2: page url www.madridlive.com/great-food I do not know if the search engines "understands" madrid in "madridlive", therefore I can avoid the "madrid" keyword, dicarding option 1 and going for option 2. Additionally I avoid duplication of the madrid keyword that can be seen as redundancy and also have a shorter page url. Thank you very much and sorry for such a question but I am new in this SEO field...just the excellent SEOMOZ's SEO Guide for beginners! Best regards, Antonio
Web Design | | aalcocer20030 -
Page Size
Hello Mozers, What is the best page size ( or the max page size ie KB ) for a home page or a 2nd level page. Thank you - I appreciate you looking at this question. Vijay
Web Design | | vijayvasu0