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December 2005 Monthly Newsletter :: Anduro Marketing Inc. In This Issue:
The issue of redirects can be a tricky one, and many are easily confused over the variety of numbers and functions involved. Many are also unaware of the significant impact (positive and negative) that redirects can have on their Internet Marketing efforts. This article will provide an overview of the most common redirects used, and their role in the landscape of the WWW (World Wide Web). In HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - the fundamental protocol of the WWW), a redirect is most often a file placed on a Web server for the purpose of redirecting visitors from one page to another. Certain redirects can also be coded directly into individual Web pages. These are known as 'scripting redirects' or 'meta refresh' tags. Aside from these, redirects are tied to HTTP response status codes sent from the server and fall into the following class order:
The 301 and 307 references are primarily for the reference of linking parties. Someone linking to a page that has been moved (internally or externally) can be informed if the page in question is being moved only temporarily (307) or permanently (301) and thus requires the linking party to update their links. Aside from the commonly used 301 and 307 redirects, the 404: Not Found response should be mentioned. Web developers can create custom 404 pages to be used in the event of a client input error. For example, say a visitor to 'www.yoursite.com' meant to type 'www.yoursite.com/contact.html' to reach the contact page, but accidentally typed 'www.yoursite.com/contacy.html.' With a custom 404 redirect in place, the visitor can be guided to an error page that may contain useful information (e.g. a sitemap) as well as a friendly notice of their error, as opposed to the annoying, 'this page cannot be found' default. For an example, click this link: ../dhjaskh Though redirects may be used for a number of reasons, the most frequent include directing visitors from an existing page that has been relocated to its new address or steering browsers to an alternate version of a page using a shorter, more user friendly, URL (Uniform Resource Locator or simply a Web address). These are proper and useful examples of redirects and are generally easily followed by search engine spiders. Unfortunately, redirects are often abused on the Web through forms such as advertising, over aggressive linking attempts, domain grabbing, and worst of all, Phishing (Web fraud). Though these effects can certainly be annoying (or even dangerous in the case of Phishing), there is greater reason to be concerned if you are considering the use of a redirect on your site, particularly in regard to 'meta refresh' redirects. By placing a 'meta refresh' command in a Web page, visitors will automatically be sent to the referenced destination but, because the address in placed in Meta data, there is no link for spiders to index or follow. Implementing a 'meta refresh' redirect can lower your search engine ranking and cost you valuable PageRank. Standard 301 and 307 redirects usually present no problems to the search engines, unless the spiders figure out you're using them from keyword loaded doorway pages. So remember, using server side redirects such as the 301, 307, or custom 404, are fine when used correctly. These are W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) solutions to aid your Web development efforts and to keep your visitors accessing the information they want and need from your site. Improper use of redirects, however, can have a negative effect on your Web presence. A couple weeks ago we started to receive reports of a possible search engine duping scam that was using 'site of the day' (week, month, etc.) awards crammed with links to inflate PageRank. Careful investigation revealed that this practice was not, in fact, a scam and that, at least for now, it present an effective traffic building tactic. We initially suspected an image map clogged with dozens of links. A closer look revealed a skillful use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create what looked like an image, but contained spiderable, hyperlinked text. Presently, search engines have no problem with this and it works well for a number of reasons:
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