How Many Redirects Will Google Follow?
A website redirect points search engines and browsers to a different location. You use this feature when you move your blog or website to a new domain location. You also use this option to eliminate canonical issues, which means the search engines index the WWW and the non-WWW part of your domain name. The Google search engine follows five redirects.
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Purpose
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The purpose of the redirect is to send you and search engines to a new domain. The redirect tells a search engine that the site has permanently or temporarily moved, so it indexes the new pages. Google follows five redirects, so you can set up five cascading redirects on different Web domains.
Types
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Two types of redirect exists. The 301 redirect tells the search engine that you permanently moved the domain. A permanent redirect means you no longer want the old domain URLs indexed. A 302 redirect is a temporary move. This means that you moved the information temporarily while you perform maintenance on your current domain.
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JavaScript
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JavaScript also offers redirection capabilities, but Google doesn't follow JavaScript redirects. Google crawls some JavaScript, but it doesn't recognize or follow any redirects set up in a JavaScript file. When you want to redirect Google, use the ".htaccess" file, which is a root file that sets up server responses.
Considerations
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Cascading redirects is a black hat search engine optimization tactic that hides the location of the target domain. Sneaky JavaScript redirects intended to fool Google or redirect you without your knowledge are also black hat tactics. Avoid using these redirects because they're against Google's guidelines.
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