Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis
      Moz Pro

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing
      Moz API

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. 301 Redirect - What happens to backlinks

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    301 Redirect - What happens to backlinks

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    7
    7
    11758
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Prime85
      Prime85 last edited by

      Hello...

      One of my sites is losing rankings in G.

      I received the webmaster notification of unnatural links...

      My question is, should i do a 301 redirect of every page on my site to a new domain?

      If so, do the backlinks (which i believe are causing my rankings to drop) carry over?

      How about the good backlinks?

      Also, what would happen to the rankings i currently have on page 1?

      Thanks

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Mudaserseo1
        Mudaserseo1 last edited by

        I would not 301 redirects because it passes link juice, it will also pass the link juice from sites that have nothing to do with your phrases. What I would recommend is starting a new site. Manually check all your old backlinks.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • amanxxx
          amanxxx last edited by

          i still don't have enough info on this topic. in my case, i purchased a domain name didigames.biz. actually it is expired domain name with 25DA already. but you know .biz domains difficult to rank in top ten. i purchased new domain name didigamesgirl.com and started making links. now i am thinking about redirecting my .biz domain to this domain. need expert opinion on this.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • gfiorelli1
            gfiorelli1 last edited by

            Personally I would not do a 301, as Donnie have said. With the 301, also the backlinks will be redirected. Actually one of the problems Wil Reynolds had with SeerInteractive was because of old backlinks to his previous domain name, then 301 to the actual one.

            If you are thinking of creating a new site as a solution in order to avoid the penalization for unnatural links, then - during the migration - contact the "not-crappy" sites which linked to your old one, and inform them that you're changinge domain name and, therefore, you are asking them if they may update your link. 99% the link will be updated.

            Obviously, all the link equity the "unnatural links" are passing to your site will disappear, which means that a loss in ranking in quite sure, but not at the same level a penalization could cause.

            Another solution should be to try to quit all the unnatural backlinks but maintaining the same site. I don't know if this can be possible: if the domain is http://www.simplastics.com/ (taken from the email you use to register in SEOmoz) from OSE is see exact match links from comments, maybe a signature, and from blog related to politics (not quite related indeed).

            Said that, and because the site has also other on page issue (i.e.: domain canonicalization), maybe to create a new site is the best decision.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • Thos003
              Thos003 last edited by

              There are many individuals that claim redirecting these sites will filter out the crap links. They juice up a site, then 301 it. My suggestion would be to test it. If the penalty is algo based and if you get hit with this penalty after your 301 then simply undo it and the penalty should go away. I don't believe it's a manual audit. Or you listen to google and start removing the unnatural links. Or you take Donnie's approach if you want to build a new, longer standing web presence.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • JordanGodbey
                JordanGodbey last edited by

                I'm not the expert on this topic, so I'd love to hear some others jump in on this.

                This is a very hot topic right. Wil Reynolds was talking about a new potential technique of putting up spam crap sites and building tons of anchor text links to them and letting them live for a few weeks until they get burned. Then put up a new one and repeat the process.

                Ethan Lyon mentions in the comments something similar to what you're talking about

                Ethan Lyon Apr 23, 2012

                A strategy that is really big right now is 301 redirecting burned sites to new sites. So if you build 10,000 links to site A, then it gets burned, 301 redirect site A to site B. Build 10,000 links to site B, so now it has 20,000 links. When site B gets burned, 301 redirect site A and B to site C, so now you start with 20,000 links. Then build 10,000 links to site C so you have 30,000 links. Rinse and repeat and you have a strategy to rank consistently in the top spots in some of the most competitive spaces. Insane that it works, but it painfully does.

                So I know that doesn't really answer your question, but sheds a little more information and validates the fact that  a lot of people are doing this, or thinking about it right now.

                So for people that have done this, do 301 redirects carry the original anchor text and thus can result in burning the new site as well?

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • SEODinosaur
                  SEODinosaur last edited by

                  I would not 301 redirect because it passes link juice, it will also pass the link juice from sites that have nothing to do with your phrases. What I would recommend is starting a new site. Manually check all your old backlinks. Find the backlinks that are authoritative and relevant to your topic (usually sites that have your keyword phrases in them), and contact them. Your email should be: Dear____ , we have moved our site to a new location can you please edit our link?

                  I love giving value.. The more value I give the more value I get (aka karma, and yes I am a hippie)

                  When you contact these sites webmaster you can check their sites in a broken link checker tool or find something to help them improve. If you cannot find something to improve at least be somewhat entertaining. Remember webmasters are people too!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  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.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • aaronfernandez

                    Do bulk 301 redirects hurt seo value?

                    We are working with a content based startup that needs to 301 redirect a lot of its pages to other websites. Will give you an example to help you understand. If we assume this is the startups domain and URL structure www.ourcompany.com/brand1/article What they want to do is do a 301 redirect of www.ourcompany.com/brand1/ to www.brand1.com I have never seen 301 as a problem to SEO or link juice. But in this case where all the major URLs are getting redirected to other sites i was wondering if it would have a negative effect. Right now they have just 20-30 brands but they are planning to hit a couple of hundreds this year.

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | aaronfernandez
                    0
                  • Colin.Accela

                    Setting up 301 Redirects after acquisition?

                    Hello! The company that I work for has recently acquired two other companies. I was wondering what the best strategy would be as it relates to redirects / authority. Please help! Thanks

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Colin.Accela
                    0
                  • alecfwilson

                    For URLs that require login, should our redirect be 301 or 302?

                    We have a login required section of our website that is being crawled and reporting as potential issues in Webmaster Tools. I'm not sure what the best solution to this is - is it to make URLs requiring a login noindex/nocrawl? Right now, we have them 302 redirecting to the login page, since it's a temporary redirect, it seems like it isn't the right solution. Is a 301 better?

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alecfwilson
                    0
                  • CoGri

                    301 Redirect from ASP.NET to PHP...Is it possible?

                    Hi all, I'm trying to migrate my current website over to wordpress however my current website is ASP.NET and obviously Wordpress uses PHP. Is it possible to perform a 301 redirect from a asp.net to a php? Or do you need to convert the asp.net language into php? Or something different? I welcome your thoughts? Regards, Thomas Rochford

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CoGri
                    0
                  • BeytzNet

                    How to 301 redirect old wordpress category?

                    Hi All, In order to avoid duplication errors we've decided to redirect old categories (merge some categories).
                    In the past we have been very generous with the number of categories we assigned each post. One category needs to be redirected back to blog home (removed completely) while a couple others should be merged. Afterwords we will re-categorize some of the old posts. What is the proper way to do so?
                    We are not technical, Is there a plugin that can assist? Thanks

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet
                    0
                  • Modi

                    Is 301 redirect suggested on pagination pages

                    Hi - Due to pagination the default page of site is coming in 2 url with - ?page=1/ sub-url and /sub-url is 301 a recommended solution due to this pagination urls Also - is it required to create separate title and meta description of every pagination page We are taking specifically in context of our discounts and offer section http://www.mycarhelpline.com/index.php?option=com_offers&view=list&Itemid=9

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Modi
                    0
                  • coremediadesign

                    Login redirect 302

                    Ok - anyone knows what to do with the temporary redirect to the login page? In our e-commerce system we have a checkout page, which requires user to be logged in - if they are not, we redirect them to the login page using simple php header("Locaiton: url"). This however has been found as a Warning as it's a temporary redirect. I can't really put there permanent redirect for obvious reasons so if someone could give me some clue on this situation that would be much appreciated.

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | coremediadesign
                    0
                  • SEOMG

                    Can penalties be passed via 301 redirect?

                    I have a well established domain that's been hit with some penalties. It hasn't been nuked off the map, just downgraded, especially on short-tail, one word type queries. I'm planning on redirecting this domain to another well established domain. The domains already have a history of lots of interlinking and are very similar from a subject matter standpoint. I feel that the penalized domain has been hit with an "over-optimization" of link anchor text penalty (I'm hoping it's algorithmic, but it could be manual). My question is if anyone has ever heard of a penalty like this being transferred to another domain through a 301 redirect. My hope is that the penalty just puts a cap on how much juice the redirect can pass, rather than transferring the penalty to the other domain itself. Any thoughts on this?

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEOMG
                    1

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.