Forum Moderators: open
They have set up a number of redirects that are used offline to promote particular content areas of their site. For example:
examplesite.com/offer1
examplesite.com/offer2
The issue is that when someone enters these exact URLs into one of the search engine toolbars, instead of the browser window - as they are increasingly apt to do, they are told that the page doesn't exist in the index -- which it doesn't since it is only a redirect.
Q: Best way to deal with this so that users will get the page in the SERPs.
Here are the options I have considered:
- Submitting the URL directly. Not sure how this will impact the other pages, since it is simply a redirect.
- Rewriting the original URLs to match the promotional ones. The promotions are more on-going, and there aren't too many but this is still a labor intensive process and I am not a fan of rewriting on a site like this (dynamic, 1000's of pages).
- Purchasing the exact URLs and variants in AdWords/Yahoo. At least the user will see the listing, but I have to pay up to $0.10 per click each time. Not excited about that.
Is there a way to do this that will allow me to use the promotional version of the URL (which is short and easier to remember, hence people entering it into Google)and have it appear in the index without rewriting the original?
Yes, mod_rewrite would work -- just wondering if there is another alternative.
