Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
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]
Chris,
I was told that your backlinks get removed as part of the process and that they will eventually get counted again.The party that told me that wasn't sure how long it would take.
Well, my pr has gone to zero from 7, but backlinks still show. That's why I am concerned about a penalty. But as I said, I am getting repeated gbot visits/deep crawls for the first time in months. I still have my fingers crossed though they are starting to hurt LOL.
Chris
1. Those who are consilidating (www.domain.com and domain.com), to a single version have a much better time because both 'domains' currently exist and are not subject to any aging delay.
2. If your move is from www.domain.com to www.new-domain.com, your backlinks will be transfered by the 301 pointer, but the domain and links are 'new' and as such, subject to any aging delay process. I think this very easily describes the reason all backlinks could/would show, but the page rank is not there.
Justin
** If you would like to know how long the entire process is, I don't know... have been waiting for one of my domains to show in any SERPs from G for over 9 months (I do show in exact "search terms").
Pages are listed and indexed, G-bot visits, no-penalties, real content, my content. Y directory - check. Y and M top 10 for multiple 1 and 2 word 2-12mil result searches - check. Over 600 pages indexed Y and M - check. Never a speck of trafic from G - check.
1. Those who are consilidating (www.domain.com and domain.com), to a single version have a much better time because both 'domains' currently exist and are not subject to any aging delay.2. If your move is from www.domain.com to www.new-domain.com, your backlinks will be transfered by the 301 pointer, but the domain and links are 'new' and as such, subject to any aging delay process. I think this very easily describes the reason all backlinks could/would show, but the page rank is not there.
Last week, I moved a couple of hundred pages to new directories at my existing domain and redirected them with 301 statements in my .htaccess file. The redirects are working fine, but the pages are showing all-white Google toolbars at their new locations. I don't know quite what to make of that. Is this normal behavior?
If this was a www vs non-www issue, I could use 301s. Does anyone have any suggestions for a http vs https issue?
Let me clarify,
What I believe is happening is when a site is moved to a new-domain that is not through the aging process, the domain aging process begins at the time of the move.
When links are moved (pointed) to a different/new-domain, the aging process for the links begins at the time of the move.
So by pointing links to a new un-aged domain you are hit twice. Once for the new-domain, which has to go through the aging process. Once for the old links pointing to a new domain, which makes them new links to the domain.
Just my thoughts, but would seem to make sense, and appears to be supported by the reports of domains moved, that keep all things equal, except the actual age of the new-domain and the age of the links pointed to the new-domain.
This would explain why a high pr site which transfers it's content and links to a new domain would suffer a total loss of page rank... Nothing is through the aging process yet.
You could even go farther and say that all links were added at the same time, and so there is no 'natural' growth of the new-domain's inbound links, and this could cause a 'spam' trigger.
Again just my thoughts - I normally stick to mod_rewrite and regular expressions, stuff I understand - but thought this might be helpful.
Justin
Nothing unusual there - normally it takes at least one full month for 301's to propagate.
You'll find it in this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Nothing unusual there - normally it takes at least one full month for 301's to propagate.
Google must be working overtime, then--about 75 of the pages are already listed at their new addresses within my existing domain, even though they aren't yet displaying toolbar PR.
Anyway, it's a relief that they aren't listed as supplemental results. :-)
>> Last week, I moved a couple of hundred pagesNothing unusual there - normally it takes at least one full month for 301's to propagate.
One month isn't my experience wrt non-www to www 301s. As I mentioned in thread [webmasterworld.com...] I've had a 301 in place for about 6 months with no results. I have taken g1smd's suggestion in that thread btw.
