Redirect code question

Systreg · Oct 14, 2013

Hi,

I've previously used the code below to redirect a single domain to another site:

Code:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function delayer(){
    window.location = "http://www.www.exampledomainhere.co.uk"
}
//-->
</script>


</head>

<body onLoad="setTimeout('delayer()', 0)"">

Would Google frown upon it if I was to redirect say 10-20 domains to a single site, or would they look at it the same as a 301, due to it redirecting straight away, as I have the delay set to zero?

What I do is upload an index.html file containing that code to a domain and that's it, shouldn't cause any problem Google wise?

jht_89 · Oct 14, 2013

Based on the Webmaster Tools content guidelines I would say that your code may well be viewed negatively by Google as they might consider it a "sneaky redirect".
It is worth bearing in mind that not all web crawlers can execute all (or even part) of a section of Javascript code, so you may well end up with Google (or other search engines) seeing those 10-20 domain as empty pages.

Is there a particular reason you would not just use a 301 redirect?

Aegean · Oct 15, 2013

Systreg said:
Hi,

I've previously used the code below to redirect a single domain to another site:

Code:

<script type="text/javascript">  </script> </head> <body onLoad="setTimeout('delayer()', 0)"">

Would Google frown upon it if I was to redirect say 10-20 domains to a single site, or would they look at it the same as a 301, due to it redirecting straight away, as I have the delay set to zero?

What I do is upload an index.html file containing that code to a domain and that's it, shouldn't cause any problem Google wise?

Thats just a Java redirect, not endorsed by Google. If possible use a 301 or via HTA. I'm not sure about redirecting 20 domains either, normally G doesn't like that.

Systreg · Oct 15, 2013

Thanks for the replies, not sure why Google would think it sneaky to redirect domains to one domain, it's not a case of redirecting loads of traffic and back links to gain juice from all the domains to one domain, as pretty much all the domains have little or mostly no back links.

I just want to make one site and not have to put a single pager on all the other domains saying something along the lines of, we have moved, please visit xxxxx.co.uk instead blah blah blah.

jht_89 said:
Is there a particular reason you would not just use a 301 redirect?

Only because I already have the above redirect code and know how to do that way.

Murray · Oct 15, 2013

Systreg said:
Thanks for the replies, not sure why Google would think it sneaky to redirect domains to one domain, it's not a case of redirecting loads of traffic and back links to gain juice from all the domains to one domain, as pretty much all the domains have little or mostly no back links.

I just want to make one site and not have to put a single pager on all the other domains saying something along the lines of, we have moved, please visit xxxxx.co.uk instead blah blah blah.

Only because I already have the above redirect code and know how to do that way.

Google wont care as long as it's not done to manipulate rankings.

Using htaccess and 301s is pretty easy, I will email you the .txt file if you want, all you will need to do is change the urls in it and upload it as .htaccess

Systreg · Oct 15, 2013

Murray said:
Google wont care as long as it's not done to manipulate rankings.

Using htaccess and 301s is pretty easy, I will email you the .txt file if you want, all you will need to do is change the urls in it and upload it as .htaccess

Thanks, someone sent me a PM asking if my host does automatic redirections, I hadn't thought to look at the HostGator CP and they do have a section for redirects, where you can set it to 301 or 302, which works nicely when I tested it, I just need to add the domains to my account that I want to redirect to, so I'll use that.

I'm not really bothered what Google thinks or what they'll do, I was just interested to see how they might view it. Ranking is not important to me, nor is appearing in Google serps for this particular site, as I'll be getting most traffic to the site via Twitter followers, so I'm just going to go ahead and 301 a load of domains to a main site when I've finished making it, thanks for the advice.