Will a 303 redirect hurt us?
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Our membership based website is using a 303 redirect to handle the redirection of users back to the login page when those users try to access a page behind the logged in firewall.
Said another way, if a user is not yet logged in, we redirect them to the login page using a 303 redirection.
Unfortunately, Googlebot get this redirection too and after a recent audit, we're thinking this isn't the best way to handle this.
For pages which require a user to login first, should we:
A) index and 303 redirect to the login page (what we are currently doing)
B) index and 302 redirect to the login page
C) noindex those pages
D) Remove any special treatment and let Google figure it out.
Thanks in advance for your help!
David
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David,
I noted no one had responded to this and wanted to provide my best shot. First, there are those more experienced at membership type sites, but originally the 303 was used to prevent a form resubmission after an HTTP Post request. Your question made me think of the recent SW Airlines problem with multiple charges to same card for one purchase - I wonder if they needed a 303?
For your 'problem,' I would think that the answer would be A, but that you could use B considering that there is no data to be resubmitted. I cannot see where either would be deleterious to anything.I hope this provides a bit of help,
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