6 replies to this topic

[ttw]

I have a client who for years has been making redirects in their .htaccess file like this:

Redirect /friendly-name/index.php http://www.abc.com/id/em-xyz/index.php

They set up "friendly" URLs that actually never have a real page located at them and redirect them to a more complex URL, but they do it in such a way that the engines see the destination URL as a 302 redirect, but since there are links pointing to the "friendly" URL that juice never is passed to the actual (the "complex") URL.

They say they've always done it that way and why change? I believe that they should set up the redirects as Redirect 301 and they'll get the link juice!

Like this:

Redirect 301 /friendly-name/index.php http://www.abc.com/id/em-xyz/index.php


Right?

Thanks,

Rosemary

[Jill]

Yes. You are correct. With 302s the old URLs will also get indexed which you typically don't want, although there are exceptions.

[qwerty]

Maybe this is a separate issue, but why wouldn't they rewrite the old URLs to the friendly ones? That way, they'd get all of the benefits of the friendly URLs.

[Michael Martinez]

Are you trying to address some basic problem in their search visibility or is this just a case of dotting i's and crossing t's because it sticks out like a sore thumb? I mean, if this has been going on for years, it seems like they have never felt compelled to do anything about it. Do they dominate in their niche? If so, then I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[kalidust]

Maybe this is a separate issue, but why wouldn't they rewrite the old URLs to the friendly ones? That way, they'd get all of the benefits of the friendly URLs.

I agree with qwerty. And also I would drop the index.php as that shouldn't be needed. It can cause canonization issues.

[OldWelshGuy]

Personally I would tell them that while it might have been fine for years, there is always the possibility that in the future this might not be seen as fine, and it would be a shame to find out the hard way due to a slapping from Google.

[bwelford]

In any case, Matt Cutts has stated that there is a slight reduction in PageRank with even a 301 redirect, so it's better to avoid the need for such a redirect.