Google's 302 Redirect Problem

[ciml]

(Continuing from Google's response to 302 Hijacking [webmasterworld.com] and 302 Redirects continues to be an issue [webmasterworld.com])

Sometimes, an HTTP status 302 redirect or an HTML META refresh causes Google to replace the redirect's destination URL with the redirect URL. The word "hijack" is commonly used to describe this problem, but redirects and refreshes are often implemented for click counting, and in some cases lead to a webmaster "hijacking" his or her own URLs.

Normally in these cases, a search for cache:[destination URL] in Google shows "This is G o o g l e's cache of [redirect URL]" and oftentimes site:[destination domain] lists the redirect URL as one of the pages in the domain.

Also link:[redirect URL] will show links to the destination URL, but this can happen for reasons other than "hijacking".

Searching Google for the destination URL will show the title and description from the destination URL, but the title will normally link to the redirect URL.

There has been much discussion on the topic, as can be seen from the links below.

How to Remove Hijacker Page Using Google Removal Tool [webmasterworld.com]
Google's response to 302 Hijacking [webmasterworld.com]
302 Redirects continues to be an issue [webmasterworld.com]
Hijackers & 302 Redirects [webmasterworld.com]
Solutions to 302 Hijacking [webmasterworld.com]
302 Redirects to/from Alexa? [webmasterworld.com]
The Redirect Problem - What Have You Tried? [webmasterworld.com]
I've been hijacked, what to do now? [webmasterworld.com]
The meta refresh bug and the URL removal tool [webmasterworld.com]
Dealing with hijacked sites [webmasterworld.com]
Are these two "bugs" related? [webmasterworld.com]
site:www.example.com Brings Up Other Domains [webmasterworld.com]
Incorrect URLs and Mirror URLs [webmasterworld.com]
302's - Page Jacking Revisited [webmasterworld.com]
Dupe content checker - 302's - Page Jacking - Meta Refreshes [webmasterworld.com]
Can site with a meta refresh hurt our ranking? [webmasterworld.com]
Google's response to: Redirected URL [webmasterworld.com]
Is there a new filter? [webmasterworld.com]
What about those redirects, copies and mirrors? [webmasterworld.com]
PR 7 - 0 and Address Nightmare [webmasterworld.com]
Meta Refresh leads to ... Replacement of the target URL! [webmasterworld.com]
302 redirects showing ultimate domain [webmasterworld.com]
Strange result in allinurl [webmasterworld.com]
Domain name mixup [webmasterworld.com]
Using redirects [webmasterworld.com]
redesigns, redirects, & google -- oh my [webmasterworld.com]
Not sure but I think it is Page Jacking [webmasterworld.com]
Duplicate content - a google bug? [webmasterworld.com]
How to nuke your opposition on Google? [webmasterworld.com] (January 2002 - when Google's treatment of redirects and META refreshes were worse than they are now)

Hijacked website [webmasterworld.com]
Serious help needed: Is there a rewrite solution to 302 hijackings? [webmasterworld.com]
How do you stop meta refresh hijackers? [webmasterworld.com]
Page hijacking: Beta can't handle simple redirects [webmasterworld.com] (MSN)

302 Hijacking solution [webmasterworld.com] (Supporters' Forum)
Location: versus hijacking [webmasterworld.com] (Supporters' Forum)
A way to end PageJacking? [webmasterworld.com] (Supporters' Forum)
Just got google-jacked [webmasterworld.com] (Supporters' Forum)
Our company Lisiting is being redirected [webmasterworld.com]

This thread is for further discussion of problems due to Google's 'canonicalisation' of URLs, when faced with HTTP redirects and HTML META refreshes. Note that each new idea for Google or webmasters to solve or help with this problem should be posted once to the Google 302 Redirect Ideas [webmasterworld.com] thread.

<Extra links added from the excellent post by Claus [webmasterworld.com]. Extra link added thanks to crobb305.>

[edited by: ciml at 11:45 am (utc) on Mar. 28, 2005]

[bucaro]

I used the removal tool to get rid of many 302s to most of my sites, but I can gladly confirm that Google's fix is working, as a couple of the 302s were giving errors and
I could not remove them. Now they are gone.

I had noticed that some of my sites list two urls: [site.com...] and [site.com....] Usually the first without description. I have been using 301s for a long time, but afraid of dup content filter I used the tool to remove the [site.com....] Unfortunately, Google removes the [site.com...] version as well.

I sent a reinclusion request but got a response saying that they don't give personal responses. How can I get those sites back?

[Critter]

Actually, if someone does a 302 redirect to your site most browsers will show you the *original* referrer to the 302 redirecting site, not the 302 redirecting site itself.

For example:

searchengine.com has a link to badguy.com, and badguy.com's page immediately redirects to your site (goodguy.com) :)

Goodguy.com's logs will show the referrer as searchengine.com, not badguy.com, if badguy.com does a 302 redirect using http headers rather than a meta "http-equiv" header on a page.

So, to make a long story short, it's nearly impossible to tell who the bad guys are from logs alone.

[GoogleGuy]

NOTE: Do not submit your own site to our url removal tool in attempt to force a canonical url. I repeat, do not submit your own site to our url removal tool. Using the url removal tool was some idea that a WebmasterWorld member came up with and started talking about. I just talked with user support about a reinclusion request, and using the url removal tool on your own site will *not* help. All it will do is remove your site for six months.

The user support person asked me to emphasize not to remove your site with the url removal tool; it won't do what you are trying to do.

zeus, I'm not sure if there's a way to undo the url removal you submitted for your own site. I'll ask someone to check it out if it can be done though.

[bucaro]

the name is bucaro.

Thanks for the warning, GG. I hope is not too late in my case.

When I search a site with sitename.com and it gives no description, but I search with www.sitename.com and it does. Does it mean is a dup content penalty? or what type of penalty is that?

[Vec_One]

GoogleGuy, most of my pages were duplicated because of upper-case/lower-case characters. I used the automatic removal tool to remove the upper-case versions. Now, my site has gone from bad to worse in the Google SERPs.

I now know that I did the wrong thing. What should I have done to remove the duplicates?

[GoogleGuy]

I would have done a 301 from the wrong-case urls to the right case urls. I'd do a reinclusion request and mention your WebmasterWorld nickname and the circumstances. Then we can ask someone to check it out.

[illusionist]

I too did the same thing and now my site along with the bad site which had done a 302 redirect on me dont show up on google. My site only shows up if i search for www.site.com not for sitename or anything else this happened right after i used the google removal tool.

I emailed for reinclusion and got a standard cut paste reply, what do you suggest we do gg?

[reseller]

GoogleGuy

Good morning from Europe.

I lost 75% of my Google traffic in 3rd feb 2005. Found few 302 redirect which hijacked few of my pages. Got them all removed using Google removal tools.

When run site:www.mysite.dk there were also duplicates which were old redundant files not linked to any page but seems Googlebot found them and got them indexed. Those were also removed thanks to Google removal tools.

Can see now that my site (created 1997) is clean of 302 and dups.

Yesterday I submitted reinclusion request (in case that a spam penalty has been inforced on my site) and received an automated response.

Should I expect to hear again from user support whether a possible spam penalty has been removed?

Thanks.

[edited by: reseller at 6:00 am (utc) on April 20, 2005]

[illusionist]

Yup im in the same boat as you, did the exact same thing, my traffic too tanked on 3rd feb.

[msja]

NOTE: Do not submit your own site to our url removal tool in attempt to force a canonical url. I repeat, do not submit your own site to our url removal tool. Using the url removal tool was some idea that a WebmasterWorld member came up with and started talking about.

GoogleGuy,

Unfortunately, I followed that member's advice out of desperation on April 15 after trying many other methods which I think made the situation even worse. I was VERY reluctant at first, but I mean, my site was not even showing up 1st for its unique name or for unique phrases within content pages (since August 2004).

I’m glad you guys are hard at work on the matter. I guess I’ll find out in six months or so for my site. Thanks for reading.

P.S. On google.com/remove.html it says "...90 day removal of your site from the Google index" however once logged in it says "…removal system will cause a temporary, six months, removal of your site from the Google index".