Permanent redirects (301) in Google

darrenw · 17-04-04

Hi,

I have a question about the effect of using permanent redirects (return code 301) on Google, and other search engines.

I'll use an example to clarify my point:

I have 10 pages in a website linking to each other, each page having a reasonable Page Rank in Google. The pages all have the extension PHP. For various reasons, I want to change the extention to HTML, and I have done this with the PERMANENT REDIRECT (301) from the PHP pages to the equivalent HTML page. This is all working fine.

What I want to know is how Google will respond when I put the site "live"? Will my pages be changed to the new pages in Google's index reasonably quickly? Or will they be treated as "new" pages, and indexed accordingly? My biggest concern is that I will immediately lose Page Rank on these pages, and it has taken several months to bring the PR up to a reasonable level.

Has anyone here already done this using 301 codes?

Thanks
Darren.

Aquanuke · 17-04-04

I think it will treat it as new pages as thus lose pr.

Maybe someone else has a def. answer

Elaine · 17-04-04

I've been using the 301 redirect extensively over the last couple of months, initially to go to from .html to .shtml then to another of my domains (tried to split the site), that didn't work - lost ranking- so redirected everything back again (got the OK from Google) and my page rank - Ive just checked - has actually gone up!! None of my original pages seem to have lost their ranking.

DutchRomano · 17-04-04

If you use the 301 in a .htacces for a redirection on your site everything will work out fine.

Example:
I changed many of my pages from

robbiewilliams.htm >> robbie-williams.htm

and no problem with Google.

DutchRomano