Redirect a 301 Redirect

[RedCaffeine]

Does any link juice get passed from a permanent redirect to a new 301 redirect? If so, are there any studies which indicate an estimated percentage?

[Chris.Menke]

Hi Helen,

I'm assuming you already know that a 301 redirect is a "permanent" redirect but yes, a 301 redirect will pass link juice to another 301 redirect. It is somewhat less than 100% so, each time a page is redirected it loses some of it's original total juice.  Here's Matt Cutts on the topic:

http://searchengineland.com/google-pagerank-dilution-through-a-301-redirect-is-a-myth-149656

[JCurrier]

Thanks for sharing this Chris. This raises a question for me; does a page that is redirected lose its pagerank over time? Since that page doesn't necessarily have any value itself any longer. And, if so, then wouldn't it be wiser, in terms of link juice, to just place a link on a well-optimized page rather than a 301 redirect?

[Chris.Menke]

How you're describing this link on a page with a 301 seems a bit odd to me so I'm not sure if I understand what you're asking, but the redirected page is just a conduit for pagerank to flow from the original link to the final URL.  Pagerank is lost if the value of the page with the original link loses value.  A link on a page that is semantically relevant to the page being linked (well  SEO'd) to is considered a better link than one on a page that is poorly optimized.

[RedCaffeine]

Thanks for your answers Chris, much appreciated.