What's the Best Way to Hide Redirects from Search Engines?
-
Hey everybody,
I like to use php redirects for affiliate links so they look better. I keep them all in the same directory. I read recently that these may hurt SEO.
A couple quick questions:
Is this the best way to redirect affiliate links?
Should I simply block the directory in robots.txt?
Any other suggestions from you SEO guyses and galz?
Thanks!
Jared
-
Hey William,
By "looks better", I have been taught that when people (especially marketers) hover over a link, they check out where it takes them by looking at the bottom left of the browser before clicking it.
The redirect makes the URL more friendly to click.
-
Hey Jared
I am guessing you are using
header('Location: http://www.example.com/');
Which triggers a 302 temporary redirection which as we know passes nothing.
I have seen this on other bespoke sites and even on some older shopping cart scripts etc and never seen it hurt anything from an SEO perspective. That's not to say it doesn't, but I have never seen it when it is used in this way. It's for an external link as well so I would not worry about it too much.
This is one of those things, you want to preserve these links, I am guessing you want to hide them and this solution kind of meets your goals.
Really, if you had lots of links to pages you want to pass page rank or anchors into, or you were being linked to in this way, then the 302 would be a negative thing as no anchor or link juice is passed down the link. But, in this instance, I really can't see it doing any harm.
Happy to take a look at the page and provide some more targeted feedback if it helps.
Marcus
-
Yeah isn't there tools to put the link through for that?
-
I think he means that by masking the link it makes hoplink theft more difficult, and also savy users would be less aware that the links are in fact affiliate links.
-
Well, if you don't want Google to see the list, then blocking the page with robots.txt is your solution.
But if it is a valuable list of resources it may be worth showing off that people use it.
In either case I'm not sure you want to use a php redirect. You could use No-Follow if you actually don't want to vouch for that site. But, I guess that all depends on what the site is.
I am a little confused by what you mean when you say "they looks better."
-
You should be using redirects as a means of masking your affiliation from the site visitor, not from search engines. I can't see anything wrong with using PHP redirects, but do them to prevent hoplink theft, as there's no actual SEO advantage since Google can see through redirects.
-
Just a guess from me here, but I don't think hiding redirects from a search engine would be a good idea at all. I mean, we know they really don't like us trying to hide stuff from them whether it's keywords or anything else. Not sure how that would work out, or what the chances of anything bad happening from it would be, but I would assume that if Google thought people were doing it, it would soon be in their webmaster guidelines as "Don't". But again, complete guess, I don't know enough about it to say anything for sure.
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
-
Is this keyword stuffing or best practice?
I'm a psychotherapist here in California. Its common practice for people to say "counseling and therapy" on their websites. Although the two are technically different, most people consider them to be synonyms. Do you think google would consider this practice to be keyword stuffing? Also, I am making a page for the forms I need people to fill out before they see me. Do you think it is bad to list links to the forms like this:
On-Page Optimization | | joebordersmft
-counseling / therapy intake form
-informed consent for counseling / therapy
as opposed to
-intake form
-informed consent
.....I think this falls under the idea that readability is important. I'm just really struggling because recently google decided my main keywords are things that have very little to do with therapy/counseling.0 -
Naked domain redirection info
Hi Guys Been reading one or two posts about 'naked domains' v the 'www' derivative and was wondering... What is your opinion on this, is there a definitive benefit to your business in making the switch in terms of ranking? Apart from the Google released info, do you have any further recommended reading on this subject matter? Thanks in advance Daren
On-Page Optimization | | ITsoldSEO0 -
Should Title Tags Differ From H1's?
I never thought this was an issue, but now, I'm not so sure. Is it a problem for your title tags to be identical to your H1's? From Moz' OnPage Grader section on "H1's and Title Tags," I thought they were supposed to both match your keyword. Any thoughts? Thanks, Ruben
On-Page Optimization | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Www to non www redirect
HI there, I was worried that my folder was not being crawled as when I searched for site:www.thekeepsakeco.co.uk/marketplace nothing came up but today I tried site:thekeepsakeco.co.uk/marketplace it does. So it is forwarding the www to the non www. When I do a search on links or analyse the domain it says there is a forwarder in place. My site used to dominate in my niche and now is not doing very well since I moved to the new site. I know I did not handle the move well but wonder what I can do about it and wonder if this redirect is causing issues. So any link building it probably going to www. rather than non www so does that mean they are not counting. What would you do? move everything back to www and could I do a 301 redirect for the whole folder? Any help greatly received! Kindest regards Victoria Thanks Victoria
On-Page Optimization | | vcasebourne0 -
What is the best way to optimise a site that wants to target one service in multiple locations?
Hello! I would like to get some opinions about the best way to optimise a site/pages/URL's for a client that offers one service in multiple locations. The client has done work in various areas of the UK and wants to be found for these locations. They don't have addresses in these locations. What would be the best way to set up the pages/URLs for each location? Is there any reason why I can't have, for example, a main Portfolio page which has content about the service and a link to each portfolio in the different locations, e.g. /portfolio/london, /portfolio/hampstead, portfolio/kensington. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks Kerry
On-Page Optimization | | Kerry_Jones1 -
Incoming Search Terms
Hi guys, I saw a blog post recently where the author added a list of "incoming search queries" to the bottom of his post, obviously to improve the post's ranking for those terms. On one hand, I suppose it it does help users find that post. On the other, it seems lazy and somewhat dodgy, but I haven't found any opinions on it elsewhere and have not seen this practice in my experience. What're your thoughts? Outright search engine manipulation? Cheers, Carlo SCWYt
On-Page Optimization | | mtgconsulting0 -
Different pages for OS's vs 1 Page with Dynamic Content (user agent), what's the right approach?
We are creating a new homepage and the product are at different stages of development for different OS's. The value prop/messaging/some target keywords will be different for the various OS's for that reason. Question is, for SEO reasons, is it better to separate them into different pages or use 1 page and flip different content in based on the user agent?
On-Page Optimization | | JoeLin0 -
What is the Best Landing Page setup?
I have seen a few different types of landing pages. I am trying to figure out which style works best from a SEO perspective. 1. The cram everything possible onto the page approach ala nyt.com? 2. The fill your home page with a ton of links approach like cnn.com? 3. The put just a small sample of your content approach like seomoz? I see 4 blog snippets, a "Go To My Campaign" call to action and that's it. 4. Pages like Groupon.com which have 100% focus on a call to action. I also notice many focused pages like Groupon remove the header and footer on their landing page. Does that help the page retain it's PR better?
On-Page Optimization | | KevinPatrick0