Multiple 301 redirects considered a redirection chain?

[Hondaspeder]

I need to redirect a ton of duplicate content, so I want to try

redirect 301 /store/index.php /store

redirect 301 /store/product-old /store/product-new

redirect 301 /store/product-old1 /store/product-new1

redirect 301 /store/product-old2 /store/product-new2

redirect 301 /store/product-old3 /store/product-new3

redirect 301 /store/product-old4/file.html /store/product-old4/new4/file.html

and then a whole bunch of old dead links to homepage.

So we've had /index.php redirected to / on other parts of the site for awhile, and for the most part /store is a friendly URL, but then we have tons of dup content and work arounds that preceded my job here. I'm wondering if those redirects above would be considered a redirection chain? Since the all the redirects below the /index.php -> /store count on that one redirect.

Thanks for any insight you may be able to give!

[StalkerB]

If I understand correctly I'm going to say no (with a low degree of certainty :D).

So /store/product-old1 you are assuming already goes through /store/index.php?id=product-old1 (or similar) to produce that first url?

So to get to /store/product-new1 from a link to /store/product-old1 you're wondering how many steps your .htaccess puts it through?

I'll have to let somebody with better .htaccess skills than mine confirm, but I think it's all resolved as one, in sequence, if it's on the same server (and set up correctly). I'm maybe talking nonsense though.

However if it was a chain then, for example, somebody going to my WordPress site using mysite.com/page1 would end up at www.mysite.com/redirected-page1/ and after hitting about 4 redirects (www, permalinks, redirect and trailing slash) and I've not seen anything to suggest that it's a problem.

[Hondaspeder]

Yeah there's certain cases, sometimes all, where /old will go through the first /index.php redirect to be able to get to /new

Yeah I guess you have a point, but for some reason it feels wrong. Google hasn't crawled this site for almost a month lol. So when it finally does, everything's gonna be so different it might just be like AHHH.

Thanks for the help.

[Hondaspeder]

Error 310 (net::ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS): There were too many redirects.

[StalkerB]

Talk me through it again then, please.

You're trying to get to /store/product-new1 and you're getting a 310?

Did I get the redirect thing mixed up and actually there's another redirect because the real URL would be /store/product-new1/index.php?

[Hondaspeder]

redirect 301 /store/index.php /store

redirect 301 /store/electronics1 /store/electronics

that's pretty much it

[StalkerB]

I might bow out gracefully before I get you in any more trouble But I'll see what I can replicate and test What would be the raw URL of the electronics pages?

Is it actually rewriting from something like /store/index.php?id=electronics or is it /store/electronics.php (or even /store/electronics/index.php)? Or are you on a CMS that make it hard to tell?

[Hondaspeder]

No trouble I'm quick with the mouse. That's why I like doin this stuff around 4am haha. Thanks anyway Barry.

You might be onto something, it's magento which I have limited to no knowledge of how it redirects, I'm sure that's the deal I'll look into it but after I need sleep soooo tired

[Getz.pro]

Wow, this is not fun

Yes, you can get down the chain too many times and your browser just pukes. And likely Google will give up.

1. Test the OLD page(2) to see if it has any inbound links or page authority. If not, then a redirect is not necessary. Yes, the page still might be indexed, but I would do a header redirect with a 301 instead of using the .htaccess file. It is on the fly and much cleaner.

Depending on how your site is coded, you can test the page in PHP.

1. Find incoming URL
2. Test against database
3. Send to new location

Simply take the incoming URL and pull the location in the _HEADER. Then look at your database that you set up with all these redirects. Then redirect the user to the new page and 301 the redirect in the header.

All the work you do is then in the database. Look at Google Webmaster for 404 pages and adjust the database. I would also then state that if I found no URL within the database (good or old) then I would redirect to the home page and 301 that. This way you do not lose any link juice and keep your 301 chain down to one dynamic hop.

I hope that helps

[StalkerB]

Are you using Magento's funny built in redirect tool? I've never really understood how that worked

[Hondaspeder]

There are both indexed and internally linked urls that need to be redirected properly. Using two CMS's WP and Magento and I'm not too much of a php wiz so I really am not following. besides the product pages still being linked there are like 1000 more 404 pages that need to be redirected to the homepage. Would mod rewrite be better here?

And Barry, yes I guess so, just found out about it, trying to understnad wth is goin on here. Looks like mage redirects a couple times on its own as well? Who knows, it's puttin me to sleep lol. Hopefully I can find out more tomorrow. Thanks for the answers guys +1

[Getz.pro]

WP has to have a 404 handler someplace in their admin section. At least the dead pages you can redirect, but I do not know if WP will 301 those.

Then yes, you have to use your .htaccess file to shift those pages. What a mess! Write them all down and carefully map them out. I would still test the page to see if it has any inbound links, if not, I might let the 404 handler handle that link to save editing.

I would also as WP or Magento or their message boards if any of them have this same problem and see if there are any plug-in fixes.

[Hondaspeder]

Yeah I might have to seek help on the magento boards.

[Getz.pro]

Ask if you can do header code injection where you can dump code blocks in the header.

[IRC]

As far as 'header redirect' are you talking about a meta refresh redirect rather than a 301 htaccess redirect? I thought meta refresh redirects were not necessarily a good thing to do in the eyes of search engines?

Also, isn't redirecting a URL of a page that no longer exists to the home page actually a violation of Google's guidelines?

I'm currently doing a project to resolve many 404s being reported in Google Webmaster account.

Many of them are simply malformed URLs (live URLs with a period at the end or a comma or an equal sign, etc.) from the referrer's side - yet some carry a vaulable backlink authority, so they should be 301'd, in my opinion to the intended URL, when that is obvious.

However, if there is no longer a close match page - say for an old but valued backlink - to ideally redirect to, is it OK to - in attempt to retain the backlink value - redirect what are really 404 pages to the homepage or a top landing page?  If so, is there a limit to the number of redirects to resolve a 404?

Thanks for any clarification of the issue raised above.

[jmueller]

301 redirecting an old, no longer existing page to the homepage or any other page (I'd suggest using the closest matching existing page) is certainly not a violation of google's guidelines.