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
-
Best way to link to 1000 city landing pages from index page in a way that google follows/crawls these links (without building country pages)?
Currently we have direct links to the top 100 country and city landing pages on our index page of the root domain.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lcourse
I would like to add in the index page for each country a link "more cities" which then loads dynamically (without reloading the page and without redirecting to another page) a list with links to all cities in this country.
I do not want to dillute "link juice" to my top 100 country and city landing pages on the index page.
I would still like google to be able to crawl and follow these links to cities that I load dynamically later. In this particular case typical site hiearchy of country pages with links to all cities is not an option. Any recommendations on how best to implement?0 -
Website Not Ranking Organically - Not Links, Not Domain Authority...
This is regarding the domain: http://lesliekays.com We got a new client about 5 months back who had a website that was hacked. It took several months, but we've cleaned up most of the spammy links and completely rebuilt their website. We have been successful with every other client that we have ever done getting our customers to rank well organically, but we just can't figure this one out. I'm willing to offer a REWARD to the single person who can figure this out for us. (Let's not get carried away, a small reward). This customer has great quality links to their site too. We are looking for answers other than: 1. Backlinks 2. Content 3. Malware 4. Domain or Page authority 5. 404 errors 6. We have utilized Googles Webmaster tools endlessly It is something else and we can not identify it! Let me know what you think! I will give a public shout out to the person who helps us identify this issue!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tosten0 -
"near me" campaign
I'm looking at running a campaign to get a site ranking for terms that include "near me" so for instance, "personal trainers near me", "yoga lessons near me" I'm wondering if this should be a local campaign because of the the "near me" in the term and Google basing results on IP addresses of the searcher (if that's possible possible instead of town names) or will it come down to words on the page including "near me" Any help or examples would be hugely appreciated, thanks community!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Marketing_Today0 -
How to associate a blog and mother website with different domains for SEO purposes
Hi just a quick one, I have a client which owns has its main website in one domain and its blog in a complete different domain, although there are plans of moving the blog to a sub folder /blog etc we can't do it in the immediate future due to internal complications. What's is the best practise to do this ? Rel-publiser I think its related to google plus is this a good way to do it? Thanks Nico
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | niclaus780 -
Facebook "lockout"
I'm not sure what the correct term is, but I've visited websites that require me to like page 1 of an article, to view page 2. Little annoying but fair enough, they wrote the content, I clearly find it of value as I want page 2. I run a download website, with user generated content. We used to only allow downloads to members, this resulted in 5,000+ new signups per day and a massive userbase. We now allow guests to download content, the majority are freeloaders, not even a thank you to the artist. I am about to employ a system for guests, that forces them to like, tweet or G+ the download, for it to begin. If they don't, no download. Are there any SEO considerations here? The page this will be implemented on, isn't a crawlable page. Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seo-wanna-bs0 -
To land page or not to land page
Hey all, I wish to increase my sites rankings on a variety of keywords within sub categories but I'm unsure where to be spending the time in SEO. Here's an example of the website page structure: General Home Page > Sub Category 1 Home Page
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DPSSeomonkey
> Searching / Results pages
- Sub Category 1
- Sub Category 2
- Sub Category 3
- Sub Category 4 > Sub Category 2 Home Page
> Searching / Results pages
- Sub Category 1
- Sub Category 2
- Sub Category 3
- Sub Category 4 We've newly introduced the Sub Category Home Pages and I was wondering if SEO is best performed on these pages or should landing pages be built, one for each of the 4 sub categories in each section. Those landing pages would have links to the "Searching / Results pages" for that sub category. Thanks!0 -
Meta Tag Force Page Refresh - Good or Bad?
I had recently come across a meta tag that could cause a auto refresh on a users browser when implemented. I have been using it for a redesign and was curious if there could be any negative effects for using it, here is the code: All input is appreciated. Ciao, Todd Richard
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RichFinnSEO0 -
Posing QU's on Google Variables "aclk", "gclid" "cd", "/aclk" "/search", "/url" etc
I've been doing a bit of stats research prompted by read the recent ranking blog http://www.seomoz.org/blog/gettings-rankings-into-ga-using-custom-variables There are a few things that have come up in my research that I'd like to clear up. The below analysis has been done on my "conversions". 1/. What does "/aclk" mean in the Referrer URL? I have noticed a strong correlation between this and "gclid" in the landing page variable. Does it mean "ad click" ?? Although they seem to "closely" correlate they don't exactly, so when I have /aclk in the referrer Url MOSTLY I have gclid in the landing page URL. BUT not always, and the same applies vice versa. It's pretty vital that I know what is the best way to monitor adwords PPC, so what is the best variable to go on? - Currently I am using "gclid", but I have about 25% extra referral URL's with /aclk in that dont have "gclid" in - so am I underestimating my number of PPC conversions? 2/. The use of the variable "cd" is great, but it is not always present. I have noticed that 99% of my google "Referrer URL's" either start with:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | James77
/aclk - No cd value
/search - No cd value
/url - Always contains the cd variable. What do I make of this?? Thanks for the help in advance!0