Redirects have no place in a Directory

Redirects are where a link to a site looks like http://www.mysite.com/go/143/ or http://www.mysite.com/goto.php?site=143

These are great for the directory owner because they can track the popularity of a link and capture other statistics. They are, however, almost worthless for the site owner.

The only value they provide is where the directory has a critical mass and has a good enough database of sites that human users will visit to use the directory. Directories being used extensively by humans are either niche, or few and far between. Google gets away with it in the SERPs, but Google can 🙂

As discussed over on my OnClick JS in the link ahref post there is no need to use redirects when a small piece of javascript will do the job as well.

What will happen if you use Redirects?

• People will complain, giving you a bad reputation in forums and blogs
• People will walk away without submitting

Neither is good, one gives bad press, the other fails to build your directory with quality sites.

Does it help if it’s a 301 Redirect and not a 302 Redirect?

Not at all:

• The 301 redirect tells the search engine bot/ indexer that it’s a permanent move of a site and not a link, and therefore of no value.
• The 302 redirect is a temporary move and, again, not a link.

And links are what you are after!

There are sites out there which will help you identify what type of redirect is in use but any redirect is a bad redirect.

How do I identify a Redirect

The surest way to check a link is to view the source. You can do that by viewing the page then right mouse clicking and selecting view source from the popup menu. The actual words may change depending on your browser and IE won’t do it if the cache files need emptying but all browsers offer this.

Then search for some text associated with a link. When you view the source the <a href=””> should be a straight link to your site with no tricks or traps. OnClick events, mouse overs etc are ok, but the href has to be good.