Effect of 302 redirects from empty parent page to sub page
-
A client's website has links to their service pages which then redirect (302 through a php "Location:" header) to that service's first sub-page. For example, our-services/service-x redirects to our-services/service-x/about-service-x
I can only think this has been done because there is no actual content for the parent page and to maintain some kind of structure for navigation and URLs. Really there's no reason why the 'about-service-x' page can't be removed and its content transferred to the main 'service-x' page. Then the redirects can be removed also - it's not how a 302 should be used for a start.
I'm just wondering what kind of effect this current redirection has on SEO, as I know 302s don't pass any link juice?
Thanks for your help.
-
Thanks Highland, none of the original URLs have inbound links. I agree it would be better to have a 301 so thanks for the fix. Though I still think it would be even better to get some content on the original URLs and do away with the need for any redirect, but from what you say perhaps keep the 'About' pages too so nothing is moved?
The About pages contain copy that describes what the client does in that area, but only after the general 'about' info. This copy could be moved to the original URL to better sell the service they offer. Then the About page really is just extra information for those who want it.
Thanks again.
-
Are people linking to the original URL? If not, it's likely not a big deal. Still, it would be better if you had it do a 301.
The good news here is that there's a simple fix if you want your script to return a 301. You need an extra header sent. Here's a PHP snippet of how this works
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location:http://www.newurl.com");Understand that moving your URLs is difficult. Even with 301s, you lose any SEO momentum and only preserve most of the rank the page has. You need to be prepared to take a short term hit if you move URLs.
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
-
Redirecting issue
Please I have a domain name miaroseworld.com I redirected (301 redirect) it to one of my domain names and I am having issues with the website so I decided to redirect to to my new site but moz is still showing redirecty to the previous websites
Technical SEO | | UniversalBlog
Even when I change the redirect on search console it still showing redirecting to the previous site.0 -
301 Domain Redirect And Old Domain to a New one including pages
Hi, I need to 301 an old domain to a new one (new website) I need to 301 the domain to a new page not the new domain direct for example www.olddomain.co.uk to www.newdomain.co.uk/pagenew Then I need to also 301 all the other pages on the old domain to the new one for example... www.oldmain.co.uk/oldpage to www.newdomain.co.uk/newpage Issue is I can do one or the other not both, I can get the other pages to redirect but then the main domain wont redirect to the correct new page. Or I can get the old domain to redirect but not the internal pages. Thanks
Technical SEO | | David-Sharpe0 -
302 a Homepage?
I am working with a site that wants to temporarily show a promotional landing page instead of their homepage. Theoretically you could do a 302, but what are the SEO implications of doing such a thing? I would appreciate any first hand experience or feedback on the idea. Ultimately it will not be my decision, but I do have influence. As a side note, there homepage is a mess (visually displeasing) and they really need a new website. This is one of the reasons that they are leaning this way. Thanks in advance for the feedback.
Technical SEO | | JerrodDavid0 -
Sudden jump in the number of 302 redirects on my Squarespace Site
My Squarespace site www.thephysiocompany.com has seen a sudden jump in 302 redirects in the past 30 days. Gone from 0-302 (ironically). They are not detectable using generic link redirect testing sites and Squarespace have not explanation. Any help would be appreciated.
Technical SEO | | Jcoley0 -
301 redirect with Magento; still Page authority 0 after 6 weeks
Hi Mozzers! In December '14 I have execute a 301 redirect in the 'old' page in the admin of my Magento store. Now I was surprised to see that the Page Authority is still 0 of the new page 6 weeks after the execution. should I have seen the update of the PA on the new page already after 6 weeks of time? If yes, then I assume that my Magento didn't execute this properly? Old url: http://hippemamashop.nl/mama/boeken/fotoalbum.html
Technical SEO | | aznventure
New page: you will be redirected to the new page after clicking the old page Mm4uBEl0 -
404 page for webshop vs 302 redirect
Hi everybody Im the owner of a webshop and we have implemented that products that are not instock are disabled from the shop. My problem is that i have a lot of 404 pages, that right now get redirected to the front page, when the item are not instock. This is because it would hurt the conversion rate if they got a standard 404 page. Customers dont know what a 404 and would click back and choose another competitor. Its really hard to find out what are the best solution and what are not a downrank at google. This has been running like this for 2 years and cant see any negative in the solution regarding seo and so on, What are your thoughts? Christian Hansen Denmark
Technical SEO | | noerdar0 -
How to Redirect all inactive Feed to a specific Wordpress page
Hi Guys, I've been doing much cleaning on my blog lately and deleted numerous categories including their posts with low quality content. After deleting the categories, Google Webmaster Tools is reporting some 404 errors about the RSS Feeds for the deleted categories. I've created a 404.php file inside my theme and placed the following code header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
Technical SEO | | Trigun
header("Location: http://www.mysite.com/My404Page/", true, 301);
exit();
?> this have catched all 404 errors and redirected them to the specific page. Unfortunately, it could not catch the inactive feed urls. Is there a way to do this so that all inactive feeds will be redirected to my 404 page? Thanks in advance....0 -
Question concerning a 302 Redirect
Hi! I've already done some research on redirects, but I still have a question concerning a 302 redirect implemented at the homepage of a website. The Website www.domainA.com has a 302 redirect to www.domainA.com/content/.... Also all subsequent pages have the /content/ directory in their URLs: e.g domainA.com/content/products First thing I was wondering about, was the use of a redirect to a new site using an additional directory /content/... Why would anyone do this? Would it be enough to replace the 302 with a 301 redirect, or would you recommend to change the entire structure and eliminate this /content/ directory? The most logical structure would be www.domainA.com/products/.., and not www.domainA.com/content/products, right? Second thing: Given that 302 means temporary redirect, what are the actual implications when redirecting from domainA.com to domainA.com/content? I've heard that 302 redirects don't pass linkjuice and are detrimental for the site's rankings... What are the actual implications concerning the example above (302 redirect from domainA.com to domainA.com/content ? Would be great to get some advice about the first problem and maybe some insights about the second one concerning 302s in general. Thanks in advance! Cheers, Chris
Technical SEO | | adwordize0