What is the best way to execute a geo redirect?
-
Based on what I've read, it seems like everyone agrees an IP-based, server side redirect is fine for SEO if you have content that is "geo" in nature. What I don't understand is how to actually do this. It seems like after a bit of research there are 3 options:
-
You can do a 301 which it seems like most sites do, but that basically means if google crawls you in different US areas (which it may or may not) it essentially thinks you have multiple homepages. Does google only crawl from SF-based IPs?
-
302 passes no juice, so probably don't want to do that.
-
Yelp does a 303 redirect, which it seems like nobody else does, but Yelp is obviously very SEO-savvy. Is this perhaps a better way that solves for the above issues?
Thoughts on what is best approach here?
-
-
You are welcome.
Hmmmm.. don't know about Yelp, I've seen others using 303 too, but still 302 seems to be the way to go.
-
Thanks Federico. Any insight as to why Yelp, who is very seo savvy, uses a 303?
-
Well, personally I would go with a 302.
The reasons are:
301: the browser "remembers" that 301, so next time the user request that page, their browser will automatically redirect as the last time it accessed the page. However, the 302, as a temporary redirect will let the browser know that it should re-request the page.
Say your website www.example.com holds an english version in the root, and then a german version in www.example.com/de. If a german user accesses the site for the first time, you do the geolocation check and redirect to german version while saving a session/cookie of the chosen version. Then if the user chooses to switch to the english version you update that cookie/session to save the one that the user chose to navigate and make a 302 redirection. Next time the user accesses, having the cookie will automatically show/redirect to the appropriate language.
Using the same example, if you did a 301, then even if the user changed the language, as the browser already has a 301-permanent redirect, he will be redirected to the "first version served".
SEOwise, if we take a quick look on Google, they use 302 to redirect users to the "appropriate" version, so I guess that should be ok as long as you use rel="alternate" to point to the other versions of your site:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
EDIT: link juice flows to the page that the link is pointing. Say a link points to www.example.com then the juice goes to www.example.com, even if that page has a redirection to the german version (when accessed from germany). Anyway, it is said that 302s also pass some pagerank.
Hope that helped.
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
-
Can lost pages be redirected with a 301 in order to do not lost keyword rankings?
Hi, I have got a website and some posts rank well, but I am not so interested in keep them for branding reasons. So I planned to do 301 redirects to home and remove those contents. Is it ok? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | patrizia_h0 -
Best Title Im working on
Im working on the best title Design based for the products, Pls suggest This is my title for product page I suggested ACDelco 40-count Super Alkaline AA Batteries: Buy ACDelco 40-count Super Alkaline AA Batteries online at Best Prices: Domain.com and in the page im using ACDelco 40-count Super Alkaline AA Batteries Definitely title crossing more than 60 characters, I have seen many ecommerce site, they never bothered about title character lenght.. Im confused!!! and Is there any best way of title design to include Buy, Online, best price are the frequent keywords with product name. Pls suggest
On-Page Optimization | | Rahim1190 -
Best way to separate blogs, media coverage, and press releases on WordPress?
I'm curious what some of your thoughts are on the best way to handle the separation of blog posts, from press releases stories, from media coverage. With 1 WordPress installation, we're obviously utilizing the Posts for these types of content. It seems obvious to put press releases into a "press release" category and media coverage into a "media coverage" category.... but then what about blog posts? We could put blog posts into a "blog" category, but I hate that. And what about actual blog categories? I tried making sub-categories for the blog category which seemed like it was going to work, until the breadcrumbs looked all crazy. Example: Homepage > Blog > Blog > Sub-Category Homepage = http://www.example.com First 'Blog' = http://www.example.com/blog Second 'Blog' = http://www.example.com/category/blog Sub-Category = http://www.example.com/category/blog/sub-category This just doesn't seem very clean and I feel like there has to be a better solution to this. What about post types? I've never really worked with them. Is that the solution to my woes? All suggestions are welcome! EDIT: I should add that we would like the URL to contain /blog/ for blog posts /media-coverage/ for media coverage, and /press-releases/ for press releases. For blog posts, we don't want the sub-category to be in the URL.
On-Page Optimization | | Philip-DiPatrizio0 -
SEO Title Tag Best Practice?
Hi, I would like to know if appending site name at the end of page title ( page title -_ Site Name/Site URL_ ) is a good/bad practice in reference to SEO? If a good practice which is better ( Site Name or Site URL )? Example: 20 Things you didn't know about zombies - coed.com Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | COEDMediaGroup0 -
302 Temporary Redirects
Hi, We currently have a number of 302 redirects set up on our e-commerce store that redirect from no forward slash at the end to a forward slash at the end of the url (see below). example: domain.com/treadmills
On-Page Optimization | | DustyBraband
Redirects to
domain.com/treadmills/ Am I correct in saying that this will not pass link juice and the redirects should be changed to 301's (or just removed?). Or are the two urls treated the same (with or without forward slash)? Thanks in advance! Regards,
Dusty0 -
Should we consider redirecting a high ranking subdomain page to our homepage?
My site bluecotton.com sells custom printed t-shirts. Our DA is 46. Our homepage is PA 55. The design studio is where users create their designs. Over the years the design studio has received a lot of fan fair including links from gizmodo and adobe. When I rank against our biggest competitors customink, ooshirts, uberprints.com I find that our domain as a whole doesn't look all that great. However, when I look at the history of our subdomain I see that we are more trusted and credible than all of our competitors. We have 10k links pointing to the design studio. Here is my question. What if I did 301 redirect of bluecotton.com/studio.html to bluecotton.com? Then I created a new url for the DS. This would not cause users any problems. In fact for many they would get more context around what we are trying to do and what we offer. Is this crazy? I never find results in google for the design studio. It always shows our home. That is pretty much what happens to all of our competitors on the higher traffic terms that are driving real sales. So why do i ask? If my subdomain is more valuable becuase of the design studio links then I wonder if I redirected it to the homepage if it would supercharge my homepage and propel is forward in the serps. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | bradwayland0 -
What's the best practice for handling duplicate content of product descriptions with a drop-shipper?
We write our own product descriptions for merchandise we sell on our website. However, we also work with drop-shippers, and some of them simply take our content and post it on their site (same photos, exact ad copy, etc...). I'm concerned that we'll loose the value of our content because Google will consider it duplicated. We don't want the value of our content undermined... What's the best practice for avoiding any problems with Google? Thanks, Adam
On-Page Optimization | | Adam-Perlman0 -
How do you create a 301 redirect for www.mysite..com/index.html in htaccess.
I understand that it is possible to create a 301 redirect for www.mysite..com/index.html to www.mysite.com. (as well as subdirectories.) How is this accomplished? My hosting company says that setting this up in htaccess will cause "Apache to geti into an infinite loop and the page won’t load." I have read on the forum that this is possible. Any help would be greatly appreaciated. THanks. Perri
On-Page Optimization | | PerriCline0