What are the SEO ramifications to forwarding your website to Facebook?

[Axis41]

I have a client who wants to forward their website traffic to a campaign on Facebook for two week. I think it's a horrible idea on so many levels, but need a solid reason why. My gut says that their Google rankings will suffer, but I can't find any research/articles that state such. Help?

[RyanKent]

Can you clarify what you mean by "forward their website traffic"?

The idea behind a 301 or 302 forward is to send visitors to the same content in a different location. If the content is altered, then you run afoul of Google rules. This could be seen as cloaking or doorway pages.

Further details can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66355

[Axis41]

They want to do a 302 redirect. I'll read the link you provided, thanks!

[RyanKent]

I apologize. I should have been clearer.

Do they have a 100 page website and they wish to re-direct the entire site to a single page on facebook? Or do they wish to forward the traffic from a single page on their site to the facebook page?

[Axis41]

They have a large website, I don't know the number of pages. Yes, they do wish to re-direct the entire site to their facebook page.

[AlanBleiweiss]

Take any site out of the search engines and see what happens.  Whether it's a 301 or a 302 redirect will determine the long term impact.  302s tell the search engines "this page has temporarily moved".  Which is all good and fine for a matter of hours, maybe even a couple days.  After that, all bets are off.

Users will be disoriented.  Expecting to come to an actual site, and being sent to a Facebook page will be disorienting and alienating.  It will be annoying and off-putting to users.  Many users may very well never come back to the main site afterward.

Intentionally redirecting users who expect to come to a company site is deceptive.  And extremely unprofessional.  It breaks an expected user experience trust.

Doing it with an entire site could cause all sorts of red flags from a search engine perspective. Because of those very user deception and alienation issues.

Redirecting an entire site to Facebook is very unwise from an SEO perspective, from a user experience perspective, from a brand cohesiveness perspective.  Bad. bad. Bad.

[RyanKent]

This would be a clear violation of Google's terms and, when caught, the site would be removed from Google's index.

The role of a search engine is to help user's find the information they seek. Over time, Google extends a level of trust to your site by indexing your pages and directing users to your content. By redirecting users in this manner, your site is betraying that trust.

The reasons for your site's actions are irrelevant. You can re-direct everyone to a page on Japan disaster relief because you believe strongly in the cause. The action is still not in alignment with Google's interests, nor those of your site's visitors.

[IPINGlobal54]

Completely agree with everything mentioned, what would be interesting to hear though - and possibly amusing - would be why your client thinks this might be a good idea?

[Axis41]

These are all helpful answers. Does anyone have links I can use to show the client this shouldn't be done?

[AlanBleiweiss]

Sorry - no specific article comes to mind.  but you could pint out our answers!