Javascript redirects -- what are the SEO pitfalls?
-
Q: Is it dangerous (SEO fallout) to use javascript redirects?
Tech team built a browser side tool for me to easily redirect old/broken links. This is essentially a glorified 400 page -- pops a quick message that the page requested no longer exists and that we're automatically sending you to a page that has the content you are looking. Tech team does not have the bandwidth to handle this via apache and this tool is what they came up with for me to deliver a better customer experience.
Back story: very large site and I'm dealing with thousands of pages that could/should/need to be redirected. My issue is incredibly similar to what Rand mentioned way back in a post from 2009: Are 404 Pages Always Bad for SEO? We've also decided to let these pages 404 and monitor for anything that needs an apache redirect. Tool mentioned above was tech's idea to give me "the power" to manage redirects.
What do you think?
-
My $0.02 is that javascript might work for your site, but it's not going to give you the benefits that 301 redirects will offer to you.
According to Google's Official Webmaster Central Blog, as of May 23, 2014, Google is able to execute Javascript:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2014/05/understanding-web-pages-better.htmlThat said, if you have your javascript or CSS in separate files, and are blocked with robots.txt, according to Google, they won't be able to execute it. And according to the post, they can't process all javascript.
It's not a bad thing to have 404 pages for pages that you want to kill off and let die. If you do have important inbound links, though, it's better to 301 redirect them and keep 85% of the link strength. More backup on this:
According to Rand Fishkin's Moz blog writeup, Are 404 Pages Always Bad for SEO?
http://moz.com/blog/are-404-pages-always-bad-for-seo"When faced with 404s, my thinking is that unless the page:
A) Receives important links to it from external sources (Google Webmaster Tools is great for this)
B) Is receiving a substantive quantity of visitor traffic
and/or C) Has an obvious URL that visitors/links intended to reachIt's OK to let it 404."
According to Moz's Redirection SEO Best Practice:
http://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection
... you want to use a 301 redirect to indicate that the content has moved permanently.I hope this helps!
-- Jeff
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
-
SEO - New URL structure
Hi, Currently we have the following url structure for all pages, regardless of the hierarchy: domain.co.uk/page, such as domain/blog name. Can you, please confirm the following: 1. What is the benefit of organising the pages as a hierarchy, i.e. domain/features/feature-name or domain/industries/industry-name or domain/blog/blog name etc. 2. This will create too many 301s - what is Google's tolerance of redirects? Is it worth for us changing the url structure or would you only recommend to add breadcrumbs? Many thanks Katarina
Technical SEO | | Katarina-Borovska1 -
SEO implications of network outage
Hi, Our bandwidth provider has informed us of a forthcoming network outage this weekend, the net result being that around 20 websites will be unreachable for a total of about 1 hour inside a predetermined 3 hour window.In an ideal world we would like to provide a holding page or be able to respond with a "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable" HTTP code, however the complete absence of connectivity means we'll be unable to do this.Does anyone have any ideas about the SEO implications of this kind of downtime? It would be useful to know if there are any actions we can take prior to the outage that could mitigate the impact. We've considered repointing the DNS to other servers, but it's only something we'll do if the negative impact of not doing it is too great.Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | Dave3920 -
Am I doing SEO test properly?
Hello, I just created a page for researching the impact of social signals on Google ranking (in Italy). Page was not optimized (one internal backlink, no other external/internal links, keyword repeated 4 or 5 + h1 h2, no alt tags), and only social signals are being stimulated (through votes). The domain is 2 months old and is already positioned for few relevant keywords, but from 2 page down. My question is: am I doing right? Is this a good way to proceed? And if not, what I should do instead? Thank you for an advice. Eugenio
Technical SEO | | socialengaged0 -
Redirect a 301 Redirect
Does any link juice get passed from a permanent redirect to a new 301 redirect? If so, are there any studies which indicate an estimated percentage?
Technical SEO | | RedCaffeine0 -
Temporary Redirect - on nonexistant URL
I'm getting a Temporary Redirect issue on | http://www.luckygemstones.com/botswana-legends.htm http://www.luckygemstones.com/botswana-legends.htm | http://www.luckygemstones.com/page-not-found.htm | 1 | 0 | 302 | YET! There is no such page on my site. I believe I had one once, but has been corrected for a while now. WHY is SEOMOZ picking this up as an error and how can I fix? Kathleen http://www.luckygemstones.com
Technical SEO | | spkcp1110 -
SEO friendldy Site structure?
we are in the process or rewriting all the pages on one of our sites and will be changing some urls around. i was just wondering if dashes or underscores are better in the urls SEO wise? www.site.com/word-word-word/ or
Technical SEO | | 858-SEO
www.site.com/word_word_word/ i personally like the underscores better but some colleagues tell me that dashes are better, any tests out there on this issue?? Thanks0 -
Redirecting an Old Domain
One of my clients has a newish e-commerce website that was just redesigned. Part of this new marketing push is shutting down an old yahoo store. The problem is that this old store's domain has a 10 year old link in DMoz and is there fore in about 200 other directories. Is pointing that old domain at the new website going to be enough to keep all of that link juice flowing?
Technical SEO | | Simple_Machines0
