Rewriting URLs and Doing WordPress Redirects Without .htaccess - What is URL redirection?

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There are basically four types of URL redirection. Only one of them is recommended; most of them will just create problems to search engines. They are:

1. JavaScript redirects - This is a method of redirection that uses JavaScript codes. Big search engines such as Google will not follow JavaScript redirects and will just index the original page. There were once used by spammers to create a doorway page full of keywords and spam text to serve as the landing page for Google bots. JavaScript redirects diverted the user very quickly to the page that serves them. Right now, Google is very good at detecting this form of spam and will ban a web site if they discover it. 

2. Meta refresh redirects - This form of redirection method uses an HTML meta code to do the redirection -- again, Google will not follow this type of redirect, and if the purpose of doing it is to provide a new location for Google to index new pages, then this type of redirect is not recommended.

3. 302 redirects - This is a temporary redirection. This means that if a URL is 302 redirected, it is temporarily moved. Different search engines treat 302 redirects differently. Google, for example, will still show the old URL in the Google index but will crawl the new URL. Note that this is not a recommended type of redirection as it is not search engine friendly. It is even unsafe. You might have heard of “domain hijacking” in which the hackers attack sites that are 302 redirected to another domain.

4. 301 redirects - This is a permanent form of redirection; it's the recommended method for redirecting a URL to another URL. When Google indexes a URL that is 301 redirected to another URL, it will crawl the new URL and present the new URL in the index in a matter of three months. This is a method of redirection because it will eliminate the risk of duplicate content and domain hijacking.

Next: WordPress Redirection Plug-in by Urbangiraffe.com >>
 

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