I think it's likely that, for their "paying" site, they're not too bothered about rank - they're probably relying more on social sharing and linking. Otherwise yes, it would seem to be a bad idea. Odd one.
Latest posts made by LawyerlyKit
-
RE: 'legitimate' link wheelsposted in Affiliate Marketing
-
RE: Google penalized site--307/302 redirect to new site-- Via intermediate link—New Site Ranking Gone..?posted in Intermediate & Advanced SEO
You're LESS likely to see penalties passed on with 301s than other types of redirects, but it tends to depend how egregious Google determined your original penalty was. Rand chipped in on a discussion on a similar topic here:
http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-penalties-be-passed-via-301-redirect
-
RE: Google penalized site--307/302 redirect to new site-- Via intermediate link—New Site Ranking Gone..?posted in Intermediate & Advanced SEO
Out of interest, why did you decide to go with a 302 or 307 instead of a 301? 302s are extremely dodgy these days as they signify "redirect for unspecified reason" as opposed to "temporary redirect" as they used to.
If it's an algorithmic penalty it should correct itself if you change the redirect to a 301 (moved permanently) after some time. If it's manual, do the same and put a request in for it to be removed, but be aware that Google will do very little if it turns out to be algorithmic rather than manual.