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  4. How many jumps between 301 redirects is acceptable?

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How many jumps between 301 redirects is acceptable?

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  • pbrothers24
    pbrothers24 last edited by Oct 10, 2011, 2:23 PM

    For example, I have a page A that should be redirected to page D, but instead A redirects to B, B redirects to C and C redirects to D. It's something I came across and wondering if its worth the dev time to change it.

    Thanks!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • pbrothers24
      pbrothers24 last edited by Oct 10, 2011, 3:50 PM Oct 10, 2011, 3:50 PM

      Fantastic! Thank you!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • AlanMosley
        AlanMosley last edited by Oct 10, 2011, 2:35 PM Oct 10, 2011, 2:35 PM

        The answer is one.

        Alhouth I have seen Matt Cutts (Google) state they follow more then one, each hop including the first leaks juice, he also stated they do not keep following but did not give a number

        Bing states one.

        http://perthseocompany.com.au/seo/reports/violation/the-redirection-response-results-in-another-redirection

        http://perthseocompany.com.au/seo/reports/violation/the-page-contains-unnecessary-redirects

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • john4math
          john4math last edited by Oct 10, 2011, 8:20 PM Oct 10, 2011, 2:34 PM

          301 redirect chains are bad.  If it's important to you to get the link juice to get from page A to page D, you should change it to just one redirect from A --> D.  Matt Cutts talked to Rand about it on a whiteboard Friday http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-interview-googles-matt-cutts-on-redirects-trust-more:

          Is It a Bad Idea to Chain Redirects (e.g. 301-->301-->301)?

          "It is, yeah."

          Matt was very clear that Google can and usually will deal with one or two redirects in a series, but three is pushing it and anything beyond that probably won't be followed.  He also reiterated that 302s should only be used for temporary redirects...but you already knew that, right?

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