Redirects & Google

are they all punished?

[austtr]

Some reference materials state that Google does not like redirects and will punish sites that have them. Does Google distinguish between redirects intended to deceive and those used simply for site management purposes... or just treat them all the same?

For example, we all know a redirect can be used for a deceitful "bait and swith" but a redirect can also be used to generate an entry into your logfile whenever there is a clickthrough to a customers site. Just measure the number of such lines in the log to see how many clicks... that's quite harmless. For example:

<a href="/cgi-bin/counter.asp?URL=http://www.advertiser.com" target="_blank">

In the last major Google indexing a site using this click measuring routine has gone from top 20 to a ranking of 250 plus. I am totally baffled as to why and was wondering if this could possibly be the cause.

Is anyone able to offer thoughts on this?

[hazardtomyself]

I did not see this thread and asked the same question HERE [webmasterworld.com]

I am considering this on lower level pages. Will I still be penalized?

[rogerd]

Austtr, unless I'm missing something, you don't have a redirect, you have an indirect link. Generally, a redirect is a situation where the user requests one page and another is loaded. There are legitimate reasons for redirects, but they are often used by spammers to send a user from a highly ranked (but ugly) doorway page or doorway domain to a page with the content the spammer wants to show the visitor.

You shouldn't have any problem with a link of this type. Your linkee might object from concern that this link won't get spidered properly, but it shouldn't cause your site a problem.

[webdiversity]

Spiders won't follow the link because it's going into the cgi-bin, so from a link building point of view this won't do the recipient any favours.

On the subject of redirects, it depends whether it's permanent (i.e. a 301), temporary (i.e. a 302) or something else. It also depends on how quick the redirect takes place. Some people say if it's less than 5 seconds then spiders may red flag it back at base, but I'd suggest you may be OK with a redirect (for legitimate purposes, like page moved or such like) automatically after 10-15 seconds, with the link there for human visitors who may not want to wait.

[hazardtomyself]

What about

<META http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0;url=http://www.redirectsite.com/" target="_top">?...no cgi bin.