Sep 8, 2007
If there ever was uncertainty about it, it must now be clear. Do 302 redirects pass Google PR? No.Matt Cutts in his Search Engine Strategies San Jose Aug 21 2007 conference speech mentioned:
Clear disclosure to machines - won't pass PageRank - a redirect through url that does 302
So what is a 302 redirect? There are both 301 Permanent redirects, and 302 Temporary redirects. The 302 is the default. A number of directories use it to not have a normal <a href=""> link to your external site, but to link to a script, that then links to your website. That script often contains a counter script, and often has a 302 redirect in it. Such redirects have in the past hijacked peoples websites. That counter url has in the past been cached by Google, with the cache of the page being your websites page on their url. Google has now sorted this problem out for the majority of cases, but the Google PR transfer issue still remains. No PR transfer.
PHP code:
header("Location: http://www.domain.com");
header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
ASP code
header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
ASP Redirect
<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status=”301 Moved Permanently”;
Response.AddHeader(”Location”,”http://www.new-url.com/”);
%>
<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status=”301 Moved Permanently”;
Response.AddHeader(”Location”,”http://www.new-url.com/”);
%>
Without just the location header, the redirect is a 302 temporary redirect.
code in a .htaccess file
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
With just [R,L], the redirect is a 302 temporary redirect.
Are you doing your redirects correctly??? Check out your homepage url's with the redirect check. I also use the webconfs.com http header check. You can also use the firefox live http headers plugin. But I find that there is a little too much information shown using that tool.
So what other ways do people use to not pass Google PR with links. There is of course the rel=nofollow added to links - <a rel="nofollow" href=""></a>.
Matt Cutts mentions a number of different methods:
Clear disclosure: won’t pass PageRank
- redirect through url blocked by robots.txt
- redirect through url that does 302
- JavaScript
- rel=“nofollow” on individual links
- <meta name=“robots" content=“nofollow" /> on entire page
No, 302 redirects do not pass Google PR, and I do not recommend that they be used.
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4 Comments
Bob Jenson - Action Online Web Design - May 5, 2010
Just making sure I understand, would still recommend 301/302's to prevent duplicate content for multiple domain names?
IE. bestcars999.co.nz is the main site but the client also has wellingtoncars999.co.nz.
I've setup a 301 redirect from wellingtoncars999.co.nz to bestcars999.co.nz so that the public correctly gains access to the main site from wellingtoncars999 but stops search engines seeing it as duplicate content.
Sound ok?
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