Is this bad for SEO? header (redirect) on index page?

[webdesignhq]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this would be bad SEO practice to have my main index page jump to a different directory, example:

<?php
header("Location: http://www.webdesignhq.com/news/");
exit;
?>

I want my main index.php page display the /news/ directory, and don't want to install the news app in my main root folder since it would be quite messy...

Is this the right way to do so without sacrificing SEO?

Thanks in advance!

Jared Alberghini
WebDesignHQ - SiteBuilder-FX - Start your own automated web design business! Private Label Multimedia Flash Website Builder

[wige]

This will do a 302 redirect which search engines should not penalize you for. The SERPs should list your main page url and the users should be seamlessly redirected, at least as far as Google and Yahoo are concerned.

However, you may be giving up some link juice, because most people will, when creating editorial links to your site, use only the domain name and there is still a debate about how much link value actually passes through a 302 redirect. In addition, some people will link to the redirected page instead, effectively splitting your IBLs between the two.

[incrediblehelp]

Big websites like Amazon do this all of the time.

[rumblepup]

This will do a 302 redirect which search engines should not penalize you for

Search engines do penalize for excessive use of 302, because a 302 redirect is supposed to be temporary.

What's on your front page that you don't want seen? I would suggest to get a rss feed from your news section and add it to your front page, with links to your different stories. A little simpler and much better for SEO since you have updating content on your website.

[wige]

Originally Posted by rumblepup

Search engines do penalize for excessive use of 302, because a 302 redirect is supposed to be temporary.

According to Matt Cutts, Google and Yahoo allow webmasters to manipulate the URLs that are displayed on the SERPs through a creative use of 302 redirects: SEO advice: discussing 302 redirects

[rumblepup]

penalize for excessive use of 302

Didn't catch that? LOL.

Ok.

I don't like redirects. A page, or front page, of a website should be what it says it is. Much easier to do SEO for.

In my experience, Google has taken it's time in indexing redirected pages, 301 or 302. Sometimes this results in a loss of serp until things get back to normal.

Business.com - The Business Search Engine® and Business Directory for Business Information was slammed with a complete PR loss when it did a 302 redirect instead of a 301. It took time for them to recoup.

And, don't take EVERYTHING Matt Cutts says as gospel. Google doesn't lie, but they don't tell you everything.