Avoiding 301 on purpose; Landing homepage linking to another domain with "Click here to go" and 5 sec meta refresh
-
Hello,
Some users when they search for our site by using "ourbrand" keyword that ignore the first result (we will call it here ourbrand.de -not real name-) and they look for ourbrand.com . Even though we have that domain name also registered (indeed it also has a high ranking power) we are doing a 301 from the dot com to the dot.de . What we want to do is to index the homepage of the dot com, that is http://www.ourband.com as a secondary result while doing a 301 to any other internal URL of the dot com to the dot .de. Yes, we will loose link juice for the main domain but at least we will not loose visits from the brand traffic (which is our main traffic).
So the question is, would Google index ourbrand.com if we show just a landing page that just show our logo, a "Click here to go to ourbrand.de" with a link to http://www.ourbrand.de and a meta refresh of 6 seconds to that URL? Additionally a cookie would be sent to the first time visitors, so in the next time they would be automatically redirected.
PS: The 6 seconds is to avoid search engine consider it a "301" like it do with short meta refresh (not sure what time is the minimum to avoid be considered a 301).
Any other suggestions on how to deal with this problem are welcomed
-
Anyone else have any other suggestion?
Thank you
-
But the idea is to rank the dot com domain just by the brand keyword so as far as the keyword appears in the title, the domain and "the Click here to go to OURBRAND", I think that the dot com domain must rank well with that keyword. Don't you think? Take into account that we are talking about a quite popular site (an Alexa TOP2000 site in the world)
-
First, it is easier if you give out actual domains whenever possible. Next, short of that, try to keep en example exact except in terms of the actual name. Then:
Let's lay it out as you have presented as I want to see if what I think you are trying to accomplish is correct:
You simply want to rank for both home pages so that you are taking up that additional space with your "branded" term. Is that correct?
Assuming that is it, you are concerned that in doing that the homepage/landing page - .com - will have issues as the result duplicate content. Here then is what you are facing:
If the site you are talking of is in anything close to a competitive vertical, you cannot make it happen given all that you have stated to now. The reason(s) are simple:
In a competitive vertical, having a page that has duped content or as in the last suggestion is just a landing page with 'Click Here to Go to Our Brand' there is no way you can rank. In the first, the duped content will dilute what PR/PA you have and you still could be hit with a Penguin or other animal penalty. If you put no content, there will be nothing on the page for anyone and by virtue of that, you wont be able to rank. Yes, you can rank on the other site, but you are back to the same issue as now in that it already ranks.
So, with anything like this it is better to lay all out and decide what it is you really want. You might be much better served to put your efforts into better and better content so that you move up in ranking. By doing that, you will get a higher percentage of users to the site and won't have to go through a lot to make it happen.
Hope we got it clarified for you,
-
It is not a .de domain (it was just an example). It is one of those ccTLD that Google consider them as a gTLD (.tv, .ly, .me). Contents are in the same language.
Our homepage is very big, with a lot of content updated a lot of times in a day. Changing just some information would mean that more than 99% of the content would be the same. I guess that would be a problem, don't you think?
What about my other propose (just a "Click here to go to OurBrand" without the meta refresh)?
-
I think you are worrying unnecessarily about the content issue. (Even if you were identical in the two pages - .com, .de it is not going to affect every other page of the site) You are using a .de in your example and a gTLD (.com) redirecting to it. Is this a .com redirecting to a ccTLD?
If so, and if the languages are different, it is not an issue. If the language is the same, you simply use a bit of different content and then your links. At that point you are only creating content for the one page and that is easy.
The way you are going about this with meta refresh you are going to create many more problems for yourself than you would if you do it correctly - GWT - and then put a small amount of fresh content.
Best,
-
My concern on proceeding on that way is whether search engines would penalize repeated content on both homepages and therefore loosing power ranking on both homepages, both domains and in all the website as a consequence.
If meta refresh would be a problem the other way I can think of to go is the same that I proposed but without automatic redirection. The user should have to click a link at the dot com homepage if they want to access the site which would be available just at the dot de domain (that click would be only necessary the first visit thanks to the usage of a cookie). A "close" approach is what lot of International sites do: when you access an internationalbrand.com you must select country and you can be redirected to internationalbrand.co.uk for example. Obviously there is a big difference; in our case there is only one link while those homepages of international sites exist in that way because you must choose between several options which are several different links.
"I believe that a meta refresh of '0' is a permanent redirect in the eyes of Google. " Yes, that seems to be correct. That's why I was proposing more seconds delay (not sure how much).
PS: I agree with you on the idea of doing the 301 in the rest of the addresses (except the homepage) such as for example OurBrand.com/services to OurBrand.de/services.
-
Zillo,
It is early here and I am pondering... So, your current situation is:
You have OurBrand.com and OurBrand.de (and both have sites associated with them)
When someone searches today, they only see OurBrand.de, but if they put OurBrand.com in navigation bar, they land on OurBrand.de via 301 redirect. With this, if today I search on OurBrand I will not be served OurBrand.com in the SERPs because it is 301 to OurBrand.de.
What you want is to be able to have a search for OurBrand render either OurBrand.com or OurBrand.de or both. Should someone select OurBrand.com from the SERP, they would go to the home/landing page (OurBrand.com) and using a meta refresh be redirected to the .de site.
Since, it is preferable not to use meta refresh tag for redirect, why would you not simply have it set up with a home page just like .de (I am ignoring content issues for this discussion) and a menu that when selected, lands on .de site via 301?
Go to OurBrand.com ... menu has Home, Services, History for example. Such that 'Services' would be a 301 from OurBrand.com/services to OurBrand.de/services.
Then, you could still rank for the OurBrand.com landing page and have pertinent info there, but allow the person to end up on the home site for all else. This way you don't tie them up waiting on a pain in the butt redirect which may cause them to leave the site. (And there are a lot of reasons not to use meta refresh tags).
Lastly, I believe that a meta refresh of '0' is a permanent redirect in the eyes of Google.
Hope this helps, interested in others replies,
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
-
301 Redirect Only Home Page/Root Domain via Domain Registrar Only
Hi All, I am really concerned about doing a 301 redirect. This is my situation: Both Current and New Domain is registered with a local domain registrar (similar to GoDaddy but a local version) Current Domain: Servers are pointing to Wix servers and the website is built and hosted with Wix I would like to do a 301 redirect but would like to do it in the following way with a couple of factors to keep in mind: 99% of my link are only pointed to the home page/root domain only. Not to subdirectories. New Domain: I will register this with wix with a new plan but keep the exact sitemap and composition of current website and launch with new domain. Current Domain: I want to change server pointing to wix to point to local domain registrar servers. Then do a 301 redirect for only the home page/root domain to point to the new domain listed with wix. So 301 is done via local registrar and not via Wix. Another point to mention is it will also change from Http to Https as well as a name change. Your comments on the above will be greatly appreciated and as to whether there is risk in trying to do a 301 redirect as above. Doing it as above it also cheaper if I do the 301 via the wix platform I will need to register a full new premium plan and run it concurrently to the old plan whereas if I do it as mentioned above will only have the additional domain annual fee. Look forward to your comments. Mike
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MikeBlue10 -
Reasonable to Ask URL of Link from SEO Providing New Links before Link Activation?
My firm has hired an SEO to create links to our site. We asked the SEO to provide a list of domains that they are targeting for potential links. The SEO did not agree to this request on the grounds that the list is their unique intellectual property. Alternatively I asked the SEO to provide the URL that will be linking to our site before the link is activated. The SEO did not agree to this. However, they did say we could provide comments afterwards so they could tweak their efforts when the next 4-5 links are obtained next month. The SEO is adamant that the links will not be spam. For whatever it is worth the SEO was highly recommended. I am an end user; the owner and operator of a commercial real estate site, not an SEO or marketing professional. Is this protectiveness over process and data typical of link building providers? I want to be fair with the provider and hope I will be working with them a long time, however I want to ensure I receive high quality links. Should I be concerned? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan1
Alan0 -
Found a cache of old domain names, should I link or 301 redirect
We have found a cache of about 10 URLs, some are ranking above our main URL in Google SERPS. What is the best course of action here? a. Redirect all to the homepage?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | moconn
b. Link all domains to the homepage?
c. Link all domains to select pages on on main site, being careful not to anchor text spam
d. 301 redirect all to the main site. Is there any disadvantage to your recommendation? Is there likely to be a penalty incurred? I feel like we'll get the strongest increase in rankings by following option c but it feels like option d may be safer. Thanks in advance for your help!0 -
301 from one site to another
I have two e-commerce websites and i'm going to remove some products from website as requested by a supplier and sell them only on one site. Is it a good idea to 301 redirect the pages from site 1 to site 2?? Thanks for your help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Aikijeff0 -
Redirecting a Page from Domain A to Domain B
We have a page on Domain A, an established and well-ranking website, that would be more appropriate on Domain B, a site that we launched about two years ago. This page ranks well, pulls nice search traffic and has traffic from external links. We would like to move the page and its traffic from Domain A to Domain B using a 301 redirect. Have you ever done this or have you heard of how it has worked for someone else? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EGOL0 -
Cross-linking domains dominate SERP?
Hi, I have been doing some keyword research and noticed two domains properly linking back to each other for almost every piece of content. I thought this was not working any longer but it looks like it works for them. For many competitive keywords, they rank in top 10, and even for some keywords, they rank #1 and #2. PA and DA not more than 36-38. With 3-4 linking root domains, these pages manage to rank in top 10. And the second strategy they have, is to create alternative text to rank for a number of different long-tail-keywords. Seperate pages targeting seperate keywords and the only difference between them is slightly modified text and images. Third is possibly the best, their second domain is an exact match domain name for most keywords linked to this industry. On some SERP's, they have 8-10 results in top 30. SEMRUSH shows %500 growth for both of these domains. So, I guess I should just sit and admire them.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gamer070 -
To "Rel canon" or not to "Rel canon" that is the question
Looking for some input on a SEO situation that I'm struggling with. I guess you could say it's a usability vs Google situation. The situation is as follows: On a specific shop (lets say it's selling t-shirts). The products are sorted as follows each t-shit have a master and x number of variants (a color). we have a product listing in this listing all the different colors (variants) are shown. When you click one of the t-shirts (eg: blue) you get redirected to the product master, where some code on the page tells the master that it should change the color selectors to the blue color. This information the page gets from a query string in the URL. Now I could let Google index each URL for each color, and sort it out that way. except for the fact that the text doesn't change at all. Only thing that changes is the product image and that is changed with ajax in such a way that Google, most likely, won't notice that fact. ergo producing "duplicate content" problems. Ok! So I could sort this problem with a "rel canon" but then we are in a situation where the only thing that tells Google that we are talking about a blue t-shirt is the link to the master from the product listing. We end up in a situation where the master is the only one getting indexed, not a problem except for when people come from google directly to the product, I have no way of telling what color the costumer is looking for and hence won't know what image to serve her. Now I could tell my client that they have to write a unique text for each varient but with 100 of thousands of variant combinations this is not realistic ir a real good solution. I kinda need a new idea, any input idea or brain wave would be very welcome. 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ReneReinholdt0 -
301 from penalized domain to new domain
I have a client whose site isn't necessarily penalized since they still show for many terms in the SERPS, however at one point they did an xrummer blast of 13,000 links for two anchor texts they were trying to rank for. They have purchased a new domain and have gone white hat and want to 301 some of the old site to the new purely for the users sake so past visitors still find them at t the new location. Will creating 301 redirects pass on to the new domain any bad Karma from the old one in Google's eyes? Thanks for the help.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JoshGill270