Homepage 302 redirect - Which option makes most sense?

[BenoitQuimper]

Edit: Here's a simplified version of this issue and how I have fixed it thus far.

On AmbitionSnowskates.com, there is a video section. There is no content on this page, it 302 redirects to the newest video. If you access ambitionsnowskates.com/video/, you are redirected to ambitionsnowskates.com/video/safari-time/.

The original post (OP) was about a site with recurring events. There is a cycle between to which subpage the homepage should redirect. For this reason, I was wondering if I should redirect mysite.com to mysite.com/active-subpage/ or the other way around (and have the content directly on the homepage).

I was also wondering how this will affect the result in SERPs. It turns out Google shows the title and description of the destination page, but shows the URL of the original URL (the homepage).

Knowing this, I can tailor my meta descriptions to be about both the company and the current event; a mix of the two means I won't have to switch or duplicate meta descriptions between active events.

I do appreciate the real solution though: in my opinion there should be unique content on the homepage with according CTA. I'm trying to push this as the best fix, with redirections being an alternative, but albeit more complex, solution.

Again sorry for being so unclear. I wish I had had an example from the beginning.

I'm leaving this opened in case someone wants to chime in.

Ben

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Hey guys, I need a hand on this one

We have a website with 3 events and we want the homepage to show the upcoming event.

• Event 1 is in February
• Event 2 is in April
• Event 3 is in June

These events are recurrent year after year.

Currently the homepage shows the content of event 1 at the root level (site.com/) . The other events have a unique URL (site.com/event-2, site.com/event-3).

Later in the year, after event 1 is over, we change the homepage content to event 2 and move event 1 to its own URL. In other words...

Current structure

Today:

• Event 1: site.com/
• Event 2: site.com/event-2
• Event 3: site.com/event-3

In March:

• Event 1: site.com/event-1
• Event 2: site.com/
• Event 3: site.com/event-3

And so on.

I want to make sure each event has its own URL and is properly indexed.

Option A

I can redirect the homepage to the right event: site.com -> 302 -> site.com/event-1.

If that's the way to go, what will be the SEO impact, i.e. what content will show up in SERPs? The destination page's content/meta description and title?

Option B

What I could also do is keep the current structure (content moved to the root), but redirect temporarily the event's unique URL to the homepage:

Today:

• Event 1: site.com/
• Event 1: site.com/event-1 -> 302 -> site.com/
• Event 2: site.com/event-2
• Event 3: site.com/event-3

In March:

• Event 1: site.com/event-1
• Event 2: site.com/
• Event 2: site.com/event-2 -> 302 -> site.com/
• Event 3: site.com/event-3

And so on.

Again, if that's the way to go, how will this impact SERPs, which title and description will I see for the homepage and individual events?

If you have other options, I'm all ears!

Thanks a lot! (I mean it)

-Ben

[BlueprintMarketing]

You really do not want to have a URL that is considered temporary unless you are changing domains or doing something like building a new website. From a search engine 1st perspective now if you want this thing to rank I think what you should do and tell me if I'm way off okay man is to use a landing page for instance go to http://www.blueprintmarketing.com then where you see the home button in navigation let your mouse hover over it. You will then see a drop down click on that it is a landing page. All landing pages is a separate way to add pages to your site that would work in this situation where you can keep the original site example.com and off of example.com you will not need any example.com/newevent  you simply have the power with landing pages to turn them on and off what framework are you using for WordPress if you don't mind me asking?

[BenoitQuimper]

Hey Thomas - we use Wordpress but we can customize it any way we like. I would guess the fix is plateform-agnostic though.

Indeed it would be easier to have CTAs on the homepage but that's not an option.

As far as rel=canonical, I wouldn't be comfortable instructing search engines that the homepage's canonical URL is an event's page, or instructing that an event's canonical URL is the homepage, because it isn't. Rel=canonical doesn't "fit" the temporary nature of the structure.

[BenoitQuimper]

Yes we're OK with that.

[BlueprintMarketing]

so now is a rule of thumb you need a minimum of 300 words per page or blog post.

[BenoitQuimper]

Hey Dave - we have a fair amount, enough to justify having distinct pages.

[BlueprintMarketing]

You need toKeep your homepage you need so it either has a update in the form of a call to action expressing the event or use landing pages

what platform are you working on don't let me ask asking? Is it WordPress, HTML?

try setting it up so you have one homepage that stays as your homepage in addition you will add landing pages that contain event information. Please look at the links below

http://unbounce.com/landing-pages/

http://www.copyblogger.com/landing-pages/

I hope this better answers your question. It is extremely hard to understand why you doubt rel=canonical  it is one of the best ways to go about constructing a website. However if you are going to constantly be changing your homepage URL I think that is a terrible idea the one I say that I mean changing it like example.com/event-1 to example.com to example.com/event-5 that is what landing pages are for not redirects

sincerely,

Thomas

PS if you can take a screenshot or something that would be awesome

[BeanstalkIM]

How much unique content is there on each event page?

[BlueprintMarketing]

I understand try https://www.optimizely.com/resources/multivariate-test-vs-ab-test

Hop it works,

Tom

[BenoitQuimper]

There is only 1 domain (say www.site.com). I am looking to redirect pages within that domain, either from the homepage to an event page (www.site.com/my-event-1/), or from the event page to the homepage.

Redirecting seems like the right thing to do because I want to make sure each event has its own URL (maybe saying URI or slug is more correct).

I can't have 4 pages (1 per event) and the homepage with duplicate content. I don't think rel=canonical can help here, so my best bet is most likely redirections.

Does that clear it up a bit? I wish I could show an example but I can't, it's on a dev server.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Ben,

it seems to me that you have quite a bit going on. Number 1 I would not start jumbling the domains around to redirect to each other I would use a simple system like event Brite its free and even SEOmoz uses it to create events. I would do this for each particular event and put it on the correct home page or website. just so you know what you described will most likely destroy any quality ranking that you have.  Did you ask to do a 302 redirect because it is a temporary redirect? Please do not do what you have proposed for your own sake honestly you would be better off dating the link that you want indexed

so my site is example.com/event-12/2012/

may next website is example2.com/event-1/2013

and so on when you use a 302 redirect you completely stop any link juice or search engine good stuff from passing through your website to the next. It is very common to see a calendar with events set up and when they pass they are no longer worried about

to get the word out simply use

http://www.eventbrite.com/

Each event will have its own indexed URL

PS 302 redirecting your website will not benefit you in any way you will not pass link juice and will honestly just put yourself through more work than needed.

If I understood you correctly this should be the correct answer. If I did not please let me know and I would like to help you whatever is wrong.

I apologize why is it that you have 3 websites?

Respectfully,

Thomas