How Does Link Juice Pass?

[NiallTom]

Say there is a link on an authoritative site to my site, and the link points to www.mysite.com.  However, I have set all URL variations (https://mysite.com, www.mysite.com, mysite.com, etc.) to redirect to http://mysite.com automatically.  Does the link juice from this authoritative site pass through the www.mysite.com URL to http://mysite.com automatically due to the automatic redirect?

I guess my question is does the link juice automatically pass on to the destination URL, even though it is not the original URL the authoritative site pointed to?

[john4math]

Yes, almost all of the link juice passes through with a 301 redirect.  A little is lost, but a very tiny amount.

Source: Matt Cutts http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/rel-canonical-html-head/

[NiallTom]

Thanks John, what I am wondering is if I need to specifically set up a 301 redirect separately, or would that automatically happen when redirecting one URL to another (https://mysite.com to http://mysite.com for example)?

[frankhellerupmadsen]

Niall,

If you are in doubt, whether you need to change your redirects or set up a specific 301 redirect, do a simple check:

Type in the URL in a header checker (like this one http://www.webconfs.com/http-header-check.php ). If the result is a working 301 redirect, and you are happy with the "location" (or destination) page, then you are fine.

In your case, type in the www.mysite.com to check if it redirects to mysite.com in one step.

[NiallTom]

Thank you, Frank, this is a great help!  When I typed in the www.mysite.com, it showed a 301 redirect.  However when I type just mysite.com, I get the following: HTTP/1.0 200 OK =>

Does this mean there is no 301 set up for the mysite.com URL?

[KeriMorgret]

There's no redirect needed at that point, since mysite.com is where you do want people to end up. If you type in the correct version, you don't need a redirect (adding the http:// in the browser isn't a redirect).

Sounds to me like everything is set up correctly for you now.

[NiallTom]

Great, thanks, Keri!