Can I 301 re-direct a page to regain the authority from a penguin penalized page

[dusty7969]

I built way too many anchor text links to an internal page and was penalized for the associated keyword. However, I do rank on that page for less significant keywords that I didn't build anchor text links for, though not super high. Subsequently, I've found that the sites that rank highly for the keyword that I was looking to rank for are high domain authority with almost no links built to those pages.

Can I 301 re-direct that URL to my homepage, where I'm not trying to rank for that term, to make use of that authority of the links I've built to that page and start over on the page that I was hit by penguin on?

This appears to make sense to me as my pages that have been hit are specifically for the terms that I have gone overboard on anchor text links. Terms that I haven't built too many anchor text links to still rank on those pages.

[WhoWuddaThunk]

There's been many case studies where penalties have been passed with 301's.  That may not always be the case, but it is something that can potentially happen.  You may be better off working to fix your link profile.

[CleverPhD]

Seems like you would pass along the positive and negative link equity from that page to your home page.

My gut says that you would not want to pass a penalty of any type from one page to another.

Separate point here.  The 301 redirect passing equity is really only effective if there is a semantic relationship between the two pages.  In other words, if you have a page that ranks for red widgets and you 301 it to a page that is all about green bogies, you are not going to get much benefit.  Google also does not like a many to one relationship with 301s and so you want to try and minimize that anyway.

http://moz.com/blog/save-your-website-with-redirects

"The new page doesn’t have to be a perfect match for the 301 to pass equity, but problems arise when webmasters use the 301 to redirect visitors to non-relevant pages. The further away you get from semantically relevant content, the less likely your redirect will pass maximum link equity."

This is also a nice article here

http://miamiwebcompany.com/blog/study-website-recover-from-a-bad-301-redirect

So, even if there was no penalty, if not semantically relevant then it is really not worth it.

[Chris.Menke]

Dustin,

I think you should leave the URL as it is and work on building new, good links to the page.  I suspect that the value of the links that had been helping the page rank for the target keyword were negated and thus the decline in ranking for that search term while still ranking for other terms.

If you were to redirect the URL to the homepage, as you ask, the penalty may or may not get redirected with it but you'd no longer have that URL to start over with (because it's being redirected) so that wouldn't achieve your desired result.

Read through this thread http://moz.com/community/q/can-penalties-be-passed-via-301-redirect and see if it doesn't make you think that leaving it where it is might be a valid option for you.

[RobertFisher]

I always find these questions interesting. I think the best way to look at it is to remember that Penguin is algorithmic and not manual and that the algorithm is mathematical.

Assume there is an algorithmic penalty to a page with lets say 50 inbound links of varying value; what would that look like? IMO given that there is mathematics involved, you can surmise what happens this way:

Lets say that the bot detects some combination of link values that equal a change in the equation from positive to negative at some level: So a page that once had link juice to it equaling some X value times 100, or 100X. That page ranked well and you were happy.

Now, due to the change in the algorithm, there is an added equation that says for any page with these type links and a value greater than 50X multiply the value times negative one. (Note: I am being purposefully simplistic here) You now have these groups of links equaling -100X.

Now you are unhappy and you want to find a way to "fix" it. You are facing a rebuild to a new page or is there any chance I could just change the direction of these links by changing the direction of the devalued page? Well, here is the answer: You can do a 301 and it will have the same value it had if you left the page up and alone. If your new page that you 301 to has something that intrinsically makes it so much better that the math result on that page when added to the math result (-100X) from the other page makes it strong, then you will be fine. But, if you did not do the 301 and you simply built a new page, you would likely rank quicker by virtue of not working against yourself.

Now, for those who will say, "How do you know it is an inbound negative number," I will tell you I don't. But, either way, you are adding a damaged page's links or link value to a new page, what are the chances there is no deleterious effect to the new page? At this juncture, it is a gamble. Your call.

[dusty7969]

Thanks for all of the input. I'm still scratching my head, but I think I'm going to re-direct and abandon the link if necessary. I think my problems are algorithmic so if I'm not trying to rank for that term, I'm hoping I won't have an issue. I'll keep everyone posted with the results I see.

I figure I'll need to abandon that link anyway as my link profile is so much different than my competitors.

Thanks!