Fitting the SEO to the Client
Great news for Google 3xxx redirects
PageRank dilution; a term that strikes fear in the heart of many a business trying to up their visibility on Google.
However, the 26th July 2016 saw for some pretty awesome news; Google webmaster trends analyst Gary Illyes released a tweet which confirmed to us all that using a 301, 302 or 30x redirect will not see a loss on PageRank.
Excellent we hear so many of you say. But what does this actually mean?
What is PageRank?
PageRank is one of the ranking measures that Google uses in order to measure the popularity of a page. Whilst it does not determine where the page sits on the search engine results, the position of your website on SERPS can be affected (albeit indirectly) by the PageRank of the pages that link to you.
It is important that any links are relevant, for example a link from a website with a PageRank of 10, on an unrelated topic will not enhance the position of your website.
What does a redirect mean?
You know when you move home and have to contact the post office to set up a “change of address” redirection?
Well, in internet terms a 301, 302 etc redirect is about the same. It is a permanent redirection from one URL to another.
The reason for doing this may be because you have changed your domain name. For example, you have decided that “thisisawebsite.com” isn’t really working for you anymore and instead want to go for “thisreallyisawebsite.com”. There is still likely to be some traffic that heads for the old site, meaning that you will need to redirect them towards the new one.
Does this cause dilution?
It was always the case that in doing this, your website PageRank would become diluted, meaning it lost power in the rankings line up. But this news from Google means that from now on, there is no effect on your PageRank meaning you can happily redirect your customers to, whichever brand new name you have chosen!
About the author
PAUL SMITH - For over 20 years I have worked with businesses, enterprises and brands in Australia, NZ, UK and US to drive digital marketing growth using organic and paid traffic strategies. No fluff or BS, just straight-forward return on investment.
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