Forum Moderators: open
I have a prob! Most of the pages in my site are contained in one dir /goto/. The index.html file is superfluous, so, rather than people just seeing a directory listing when going to the root of /goto/, I'd like to just make a simple redirect to home.
Firstly, would I be penalised for using a redirect to home page of my own site (albeit ligitimate)?
Secondly, if not, would it be considered spam if I optimised this page for google (i.e. included keywords in H1, Title, Desc tags and internal links etc), even though it's a redirect within my own site?
Many thanks in adavnce for your help :-)
If you're issuing an HTTP status 301 or 302 redirect then I don't see a problem as long as most of your incoming links don't go to that address. (see your server configuration manual or search [searchengineworld.com] for your server software and HTTP redirect or 301 redirect).
If you're using a META refresh or Javascript redirection and you optimise the page that redirects then I'd worry a little.