What to do with a 302 redirect after a while

[Jacobe]

Hi guys,

A client of ours has a website with a very bad linkprofile. We adressed this issue and we migrated the website to another domain.

We redirected the bad website (cornelisbedding.be) to the new domain (cornelisbedding.com) with a 302 redirect. We didn't want to pass the bad link juice. The problem we are having now is that we can't afford to lose the redirect on cornelisbedding.be. We would lose to much traffic because the old domain still has alot of links that generate good quality traffic.

I have read that Google will treat 302 redirects as 301's in the long run. We really want to avoid this.
We were thinking of using a meta refresh with a delay on, but in Google's eyes that would be considered spammy.

Are their any other suggestions on how to handle this?

Thanks you!

[Carson-Ward]

Hi,

Sorry I'm late - I must have missed the notification on this one. I recommend against using any redirects that pass link equity so long as there's a manual penalty on the site.

I have seen penalties transfer - usually Panda or Penguin will only be re-applied on the refresh, but if the signal is fairly strong or the penalty is manual the penalty can transfer within days. Sometimes the penalty doesn't transfer, and it's usually because either the content is significantly different from what was penalized (in which case the links just don't count) or because the new site has a bunch of good links to balance things out.

If I were you, I'd keep marketing the new site, build some awareness, and avoid passing link equity until the old site is clean.

[TomRayner]

I'd second that motion!

[zeepartner]

True, I guess I'd also test this with some other domain before doing it on an important corporate site. Would be great to read about someone's experience with this!

[TomRayner]

In theory, absolutely. I just think the disavow tool and its effectiveness is a bit of a grey area.

Call me paranoid, but I'd rather not associate any old domain that has had a penalty, lifted or otherwise, with a new domain in any way shape or form.  Like I say though, that could be overkill.

[zeepartner]

Couldn't an alternative be to disavow all links in Webmaster Tools pointing to the OLD domain and then still use 301 redirects? By using the disavow tool, the old domain should be in the clear, no?

[TomRayner]

If you don't want the link profile to eventually pass, but still rely on the redirect to drive traffic to the site, then the simple answer is that you need to market the new site more.

Obviously, this includes promoting the new .com domain's search visibility more, but the other option is to put a notice on the old .be domain.  If you put up a one page site with a good graphic design along the lines of "We have moved, please find our new site at" etc - without a link, I hasten to add - you're giving people the chance to recognise the move, update their bookmarks and not visit the old site any more.  You could even put a notice saying "This site will cease to exist from XXXX" to really let people know you've permanently moved.

It's probably the clearest way to show that the domain has moved, without passing any of the old link profile to the new domain.

Hope this helps.