Redirect Spam?

[Webnauts]

I have deleted some old pages on my server which are still indexed in some SE.

Therefore, I wanted to take advantage of this, and I made redirects over Meta Tags after 15sec.

Is this spamming?

See an example here: http://www.webnauts.net/css_final/index.shtml

Thanks in advance for your kind support.

[coder]

a better way might just be to make a custom 404 error page, instead of the re-direct.
We do that with all our sites, although it doesn't help with page rank I like it better.

[zwickes]

I was just about to post on this very topic.

I use a custom 404 page - but take it a step farther.

I check the incoming target page and if I find it is one that I deliberately moved, I simply redirect the response.

Custom 404 page ASP EG:

<%
Dim requestedPath
requestedPath = Mid(lcase(Request.Querystring), 5)

Select Case requestedPath
Case "http://www.softwareshield.com/download/download.htm"
Response.Redirect "/download/download.asp"
Case[list=1]
Response.Redirect <new page>
End Select
%>

Otherwise - I show the custom 404 page to the user.

Is this redirect spam according to Google (or other SEs)?

[jawn_tech]

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...=142237#142237

I am in the same boat as you. I posted a similar topic. I think Google does see it as spamming, but that's only my best educated guess. All our inner pages dropped to 0 PR, but our homepage kept its PR of 5. The only rationale I can think of is was getting slapped with a penalty for the java redirects I did for the exact same reasons you speak of.

IMO, I think javascript redirects have a legitimate purpose in this case and shouldn't be penalized, just because some have abused it for spamming. Your and my intent wasn't spamming, nonetheless googlebot is a bot, and not a good judge of human character.

[zwickes]

Originally Posted by jawn_tech

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...=142237#142237

I am in the same boat as you. I posted a similar topic.

I found that thread too and after doing more reading - I removed my java redirects from the 404 page and contacted my host about custom 301 redirects for all of my moved pages. (I am on an IIS box so the host has to do it for me)

Originally Posted by jawn_tech

I think Google does see it as spamming, but that's only my best educated guess.

I agree.

Originally Posted by jawn_tech

IMO, I think javascript redirects have a legitimate purpose in this case and shouldn't be penalized, just because some have abused it for spamming. Your and my intent wasn't spamming, nonetheless googlebot is a bot, and not a good judge of human character.

Again I agree - but in this case how would Google differentiate between legitimate and black-hat use of the redirect (javascript/meta refresh or otherwise)?

I suspect it would be impossible - so conform I will....