Avoiding 301 on purpose; Landing homepage linking to another domain with "Click here to go" and 5 sec meta refresh
-
Hello,
Some users when they search for our site by using "ourbrand" keyword that ignore the first result (we will call it here ourbrand.de -not real name-) and they look for ourbrand.com . Even though we have that domain name also registered (indeed it also has a high ranking power) we are doing a 301 from the dot com to the dot.de . What we want to do is to index the homepage of the dot com, that is http://www.ourband.com as a secondary result while doing a 301 to any other internal URL of the dot com to the dot .de. Yes, we will loose link juice for the main domain but at least we will not loose visits from the brand traffic (which is our main traffic).
So the question is, would Google index ourbrand.com if we show just a landing page that just show our logo, a "Click here to go to ourbrand.de" with a link to http://www.ourbrand.de and a meta refresh of 6 seconds to that URL? Additionally a cookie would be sent to the first time visitors, so in the next time they would be automatically redirected.
PS: The 6 seconds is to avoid search engine consider it a "301" like it do with short meta refresh (not sure what time is the minimum to avoid be considered a 301).
Any other suggestions on how to deal with this problem are welcomed
-
Anyone else have any other suggestion?
Thank you
-
But the idea is to rank the dot com domain just by the brand keyword so as far as the keyword appears in the title, the domain and "the Click here to go to OURBRAND", I think that the dot com domain must rank well with that keyword. Don't you think? Take into account that we are talking about a quite popular site (an Alexa TOP2000 site in the world)
-
First, it is easier if you give out actual domains whenever possible. Next, short of that, try to keep en example exact except in terms of the actual name. Then:
Let's lay it out as you have presented as I want to see if what I think you are trying to accomplish is correct:
You simply want to rank for both home pages so that you are taking up that additional space with your "branded" term. Is that correct?
Assuming that is it, you are concerned that in doing that the homepage/landing page - .com - will have issues as the result duplicate content. Here then is what you are facing:
If the site you are talking of is in anything close to a competitive vertical, you cannot make it happen given all that you have stated to now. The reason(s) are simple:
In a competitive vertical, having a page that has duped content or as in the last suggestion is just a landing page with 'Click Here to Go to Our Brand' there is no way you can rank. In the first, the duped content will dilute what PR/PA you have and you still could be hit with a Penguin or other animal penalty. If you put no content, there will be nothing on the page for anyone and by virtue of that, you wont be able to rank. Yes, you can rank on the other site, but you are back to the same issue as now in that it already ranks.
So, with anything like this it is better to lay all out and decide what it is you really want. You might be much better served to put your efforts into better and better content so that you move up in ranking. By doing that, you will get a higher percentage of users to the site and won't have to go through a lot to make it happen.
Hope we got it clarified for you,
-
It is not a .de domain (it was just an example). It is one of those ccTLD that Google consider them as a gTLD (.tv, .ly, .me). Contents are in the same language.
Our homepage is very big, with a lot of content updated a lot of times in a day. Changing just some information would mean that more than 99% of the content would be the same. I guess that would be a problem, don't you think?
What about my other propose (just a "Click here to go to OurBrand" without the meta refresh)?
-
I think you are worrying unnecessarily about the content issue. (Even if you were identical in the two pages - .com, .de it is not going to affect every other page of the site) You are using a .de in your example and a gTLD (.com) redirecting to it. Is this a .com redirecting to a ccTLD?
If so, and if the languages are different, it is not an issue. If the language is the same, you simply use a bit of different content and then your links. At that point you are only creating content for the one page and that is easy.
The way you are going about this with meta refresh you are going to create many more problems for yourself than you would if you do it correctly - GWT - and then put a small amount of fresh content.
Best,
-
My concern on proceeding on that way is whether search engines would penalize repeated content on both homepages and therefore loosing power ranking on both homepages, both domains and in all the website as a consequence.
If meta refresh would be a problem the other way I can think of to go is the same that I proposed but without automatic redirection. The user should have to click a link at the dot com homepage if they want to access the site which would be available just at the dot de domain (that click would be only necessary the first visit thanks to the usage of a cookie). A "close" approach is what lot of International sites do: when you access an internationalbrand.com you must select country and you can be redirected to internationalbrand.co.uk for example. Obviously there is a big difference; in our case there is only one link while those homepages of international sites exist in that way because you must choose between several options which are several different links.
"I believe that a meta refresh of '0' is a permanent redirect in the eyes of Google. " Yes, that seems to be correct. That's why I was proposing more seconds delay (not sure how much).
PS: I agree with you on the idea of doing the 301 in the rest of the addresses (except the homepage) such as for example OurBrand.com/services to OurBrand.de/services.
-
Zillo,
It is early here and I am pondering... So, your current situation is:
You have OurBrand.com and OurBrand.de (and both have sites associated with them)
When someone searches today, they only see OurBrand.de, but if they put OurBrand.com in navigation bar, they land on OurBrand.de via 301 redirect. With this, if today I search on OurBrand I will not be served OurBrand.com in the SERPs because it is 301 to OurBrand.de.
What you want is to be able to have a search for OurBrand render either OurBrand.com or OurBrand.de or both. Should someone select OurBrand.com from the SERP, they would go to the home/landing page (OurBrand.com) and using a meta refresh be redirected to the .de site.
Since, it is preferable not to use meta refresh tag for redirect, why would you not simply have it set up with a home page just like .de (I am ignoring content issues for this discussion) and a menu that when selected, lands on .de site via 301?
Go to OurBrand.com ... menu has Home, Services, History for example. Such that 'Services' would be a 301 from OurBrand.com/services to OurBrand.de/services.
Then, you could still rank for the OurBrand.com landing page and have pertinent info there, but allow the person to end up on the home site for all else. This way you don't tie them up waiting on a pain in the butt redirect which may cause them to leave the site. (And there are a lot of reasons not to use meta refresh tags).
Lastly, I believe that a meta refresh of '0' is a permanent redirect in the eyes of Google.
Hope this helps, interested in others replies,
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can anyone please explain the real difference between backlinks, 301 links, and redirect links?which one is better to rank a website? i am looking for the help for one of my website
Can anyone please explain the real difference between backlinks, 301 links, and redirect links? which one is better to rank a website? I am looking for help for one of my website vacuum cleaners
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hshajjajsjsj3880 -
Using a Sub Domain as a Main Domain?
Hi, I'm working on a site at the moment and the sub domain is acting as the main domain. This occurred when the site was redesigned and built on a sub domain for testing but it was never moved to the main domain when it went live (a couple of years ago). So little or no pages are live on domain.com but all on sub.domain.com. It's a large company but they have very poor rankings. Would you recommend that they move the sub domain back into the root folder? Does this involve renaming/re-pointing URLs? Thanks Louise
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MVIreland1 -
Consolidating Multiple Domains into A Single Domain
I have a client who's website is an amalgamation of multiple domains. jacksonhole.net is the main domain but the site passes traffic back and forth from the following domains/sites. My questions is, would it it be better for SEO to consolidate all of these domains under the single high authority domain and 301 redirect the rest or is that a really bad idea? Thanks for your help. jacksonhole.net (Domain Authority 31) jackson-hole-rental-condos.com (Domain Authority 22) jackson-hole-rental-homes.com (Domain Authority 21) j acksonholehotelguide.com (Domain Authority 19)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dbaxa-2613381 -
Why do Local "5 pack" results vary between showing Google+, Google+ and website address
I had a client ask me a good question. When they pull up a search result they show up at the top but only with a link to their G+ page. Other competitors show their web address and G+ page. Why are these results different in the same search group? Is there a way to ensure the web address shows up?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ron_McCabe0 -
Landing pages "dropping" and being replaced with homepage?
Hi Moz People Happy new year to all, I have an interesting one here. I have recently been making some landing pages and they have all pretty much hit page 1 for the search terms I've focused on (UK Domain). Up until this morning the landing page was the 8th organic result on the UK domain. However I have checked this morning and the landing page has dropped below the top 50 and instead our homepage is now showing as the last organic result on page 1. This is intriguing to me as it has also happened to a couple of other landing pages I have made. Is this due to the relevance being driven higher by the landing pages but overall the homepage is more important to Google? Do you guys think this might start happening to the other pages that I have created? Any input would be appreciated! ( Ill give you links and search terms if you want to take a look for yourselves but I try to refrain from "self advertising" ) Happy Thursday Mozzers ! Jamie
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SanjidaKazi0 -
Does Yahoo Directory Listing Pass Authority with PA:0 and 0 links from 0 Root Domains?
So we already have our brand listed in Yahoo Directory for a few years but today I noticed it is not listed in OSE and the pages we're listed on in Yahoo Dir are PA:0 / DA: 100 with 0 links from 0 Root Domains! (or with a PA:1) Does this mean no juice is being passed at all for this listing? Does it mean it is not even spidered by Google then as how can it be found if no inlinks? Does any authority still get passed from Yahoos domain with DA100 despite pages being PA0? I ask because I'm considering adding another company to Yahoo Dir to get some authority rather than traffic.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | emerald0 -
Can links indexed by google "link:" be bad? or this is like a good example by google
Can links indexed by google "link:" be bad? Or this is like a good example shown by google. We are cleaning our links from Penguin and dont know what to do with these ones. Some of them does not look quality.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bele0 -
Can a domain rank for a competitive term with no links?
Hi, I know that this topic has received a lot of attention recently (Not all of it good) and I am not normally one to re-open a can of worms but the whole 'Camper Mens Shoes' fiasco has got me thinking. If you're not familiar with the story then you can get the highlights of it here - http://martinmacdonald.net/the-curios-case-of-camper-shoes/ My question is this - Say that you had a domain (Domain A) that was ranking well for a competitve keyword and that it had a good backlink profile. If you used rel="canonical" on every page of Domain A to point to a duplicate site on a different domain (Domain B) , would Domain B then rank well in place of Domain A? I know that this probably doesn't have much practical use but I am trying to get a better understanding of the effect of using rel="canonical" Would the result of doing the above mean that Domain B would rank well without having any links pointing directly to it?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AdeLewis0