Can 301 Redirect Do this?

[adobe plug-in]

I read somewhere in an email from Jade that a 301 redirect can actually transfer page rank from google. Can anyone verify this in their experience because I have had 301 redirect get much content de-indexed in Google once and took months to come back, like a 301 sandbox.

I typically try to never resort to 301 redirect because it really messes things up IMO. But I am normally talking about pages or folders in a domain. If I take an entire domain and 301 to new domain, will it transfer that pagerank. Does that domain (NAME) own it's pagerank or would the pagerank actually follow that content with a 301 ??

Also, to 301 an entire domain would need to use mod rewrite because of all the folders and links inside the domain. Or would it be better to have several hundred lines of 301, link by link? Somewhere I read that the mod rewrite would be more likely to cause Google to de-index content than a straight line of 301 in the .htaccess

Looking for real world experience here, not guesses and theory about it please. Can't really risk de-indexing content based on guess and theory... TIA

[wige]

Also, to 301 an entire domain would need to use mod rewrite because of all the folders and links inside the domain. Or would it be better to have several hundred lines of 301, link by link? Somewhere I read that the mod rewrite would be more likely to cause Google to de-index content than a straight line of 301 in the .htaccess

I think easier than mod rewrite might be

RedirectMatch 301 /(.*) http://newdomain/$1

EDIT: mod_rewrite is internal, and can lead to duplicate content issues because the user/browser/spider only sees the original address, not the new address the content is coming from.

As far as redirects transferring page rank, I have seen no evidence of this when I redesigned my site. It seems to me that a link only sends page rank to that exact URL. I have a few 301s for links that are over seven years out of date that I have not been able to get changed, and in the webmaster panel from Google, there is a section where you can view incoming links by the page they point to. Redirected links do not show up in the list. This isn't specific proof, but leads me to strongly suspect that Google does not consider these links when calculating Page Rank. Unfortunately, short of getting a job at the Googleplex, that is probably the closest we can come to knowing.

[hostBrain]

Well, we can talk all day about real-world examples, the trouble is, every situation is unique and there's too many variables.

Anytime you are changing domains, you are taking a risk. And with that risk you need to expect the worst, but hope for the best.

You cannot just 301 redirect the domain itself, you'll need to implement the redirect to all pages.. or atleast as many as possible.

In addition You should compile a list of all websites that point to your old domain, then contact them and have them update their links to point to your new domain.

The question is not so much will pagerank be transferred, but how quickly will the new domain and all of its pages be indexed, crawled and begin showing up in google's serps.

There most likely will be a dip, but doing the above steps, should ease the pain.

[adobe plug-in]

In addition You should compile a list of all websites that point to your old domain, then contact them and have them update their links to point to your new domain.

Thanks for that, is something I did not consider doing. What I might add to this for others who may reference later is that I used my webstats to prioritize all the most traveled links from many months of reporting to build the 301 re-direct list.

Wige,

thank you for that code:

Code:
RedirectMatch 301 /(.*) http://newdomain/$1]

That is a method that I had not seen or tried, very useful indeed, nice to learn new tricks, thanks for that.

[hostBrain]

In addition You should compile a list of all websites that point to your old domain, then contact them and have them update their links to point to your new domain.

Thanks for that, is something I did not consider doing. What I might add to this for others who may reference later is that I used my webstats to prioritize all the most traveled links from many months of reporting to build the 301 re-direct list.

Yep, you absolutely have to do that, in order to minimize any lapses. IN addition, you should try to get a few new sites to link to your new domain.
The whole idea is to get google to recognize and index the new domain asap

[dvduval]

It would help me a lot to know how fast the pagerank is transferred after doing a 301 redirect. I have a lot of customers that ask me if the switch from their existing software to phpLD how long it will take for a 301 to show the pagerank on the only urls (multiple categories) on the new urls.

Great topic!
Thanks,
David
phpLD

[incrediblehelp]

It would help me a lot to know how fast the pagerank is transferred after doing a 301 redirect. I have a lot of customers that ask me if the switch from their existing software to phpLD how long it will take for a 301 to show the pagerank on the only urls (multiple categories) on the new urls.

No real way of knowing until you try it. I would give yourself 3-4 months fro the SE's to pick on it. I leave 301 redirects up for a long time, just for the sake of real visitor bookmarks and links.

[bhartzer]

a 301 redirect can actually transfer page rank from google

Well, I can honestly tell you that yes, PageRank and links are transferred to the domain you redirect to. So, if you redirect a PR5 site with 100 backlinks to a new domain then the new domain will become a PR5 with 100 backlinks.

As for the "sandbox", one way to "get around" it would be buy an expired domain or a domain that's been around for a while and redirect it with a 301 Permanent Redirect to the new domain. From my experience, after you set up the 301 you should be seeing result with a week or two.

[Andilinks]

Based only on my own recent experience, a 301 will transfer PageRank to a new page on the same domain but will destroy traffic from an old established domain (5 years) with lots of traffic to a newer one (~ one year). Both domains had established PageRank and were indexed.

Fortunately these were pages that I do not intend to continue maintaining anyway but the loss of traffic was dramatic and immediate.

If you want to know the pages and domains and see the graphs send me a private message.

[jrb@w3f.com]

Also, to 301 an entire domain would need to use mod rewrite because of all the folders and links inside the domain. Or would it be better to have several hundred lines of 301, link by link? Somewhere I read that the mod rewrite would be more likely to cause Google to de-index content than a straight line of 301 in the .htaccess

I think easier than mod rewrite might be

RedirectMatch 301 /(.*) http://newdomain/$1

Finding the right code is very important to serve all purposes/sites/languages.

Where pray tell does this code go?

.htaccess ???
php block ???
httpd.conf ???