Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Why is Google not following a 301 redirect on the robots.txt file?
-
Hi Guys,
I recently posted a question on the Google Webmasters Forum http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=683e71557db7fd54&hl=en&fid=683e71557db7fd540004a4b4add8cbb6 and didn't get a satisfactory feedback so I thought I will put this to the SEO gurus on here. Perhaps one of you guys might good buddies with Matt and might be able to ask him directly. I actually posted on Matt's blog but he hasn't got back to me.
Basically we did a URL restructure for client and set up 301 redirects and saw a huge drop in rankings over time. The 301 redirects seem to work fine and have been tested by many many people. We suspected that google might be ignoring the 301 redirects or devaluing them and so I reviewed the server log to see what is happening when the googlebot crawls the site and it showed that on many occasions the googlebot did not reload the page after hitting a 301 redirect.
Sure.. you might say it probably queues it or Google might just be checking that the 301 redirect is still in place but why check so often (with a few hours to a day on the same URL) it even skips a 301 redirect on the robots.txt file i.e. from http://clientsite.com/robots.txt to http://www.clientsite.com/robots.txt. from non-www to www version.
I don't think it is easy to dismiss the skipping of the robots.txt file - this 301 redirect should be loaded immediately to use the instructions the gooblebot requires to crawl the page.
Any help will be appreciated. I can sent the server log to anyone personally but I am reluctant to post it on here.
Regards,
Zan
-
Thanks John, I check the robots.txt redirect and it is redirecting fine from the non-www version to the www version. I also know that G is crawling the site because we can see requests by G in the server log. Also as with the case with the other 301 redirects there were cases G followed the 301 redirect on the robots.txt file but also many cases where it didnt.
-
Hi Zan-
Check out this thread:
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=23404
Reading it through, I thought comments #8 and #11 might be of interest to you.
-John
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why Google Search Console Data is different from Moz Data for my website
Hi All I am running a website, I have been using Moz since Feb 2021. Kindly go through these pics My question is why Moz is showing 2K plus backlinks while Google search console is showing just 1253 backlinks. Why fewer links in the google search console is less? How can I increase Google search console backlinks? Also, Moz is showing 90+ DA backlinks but those websites are not showing by the Google search console. What should I do to let google consider them? m0JGjBQ.jpg Cmp8ei3.png
Link Building | | ssubodhsingh0 -
How do I set a link as a "do follow"?
I have a page from a state agency linking to my website. They have good PA and DA. How do I tell google to "do follow"? It is already showing up as linked to my site, I just want to make sure I'm getting the SEO juice! 🙂
Link Building | | Kuhliff0 -
How long does it take Google to remove links after using disavow tool?
Hi guys, So we're currently in the process of removing some of the less useful and more suspect links from our profile, and used the Google disavow tool to do so. We uploaded the .txt file to the search console on 7th July this year, 2 months ago now, and according to our most recent site crawl, the suspect links are still showing up on our link profile. Do we have any idea how long this is roughly supposed to take? The ideas I've found online are conflicting - anything from 3-4 weeks to 6-9 months. Which is it? Is there any way of fast-tracking this process? Thanks!
Link Building | | rawdog0 -
How to get 'Links to you site' via the google search console API?
hey! Any idea how I can download backlinks via the sear console API? This page from Google has a few commands but not the back links one - https://developers.google.com/apis-explorer/#p/webmasters/v3/ Has anyone collected backlinks data in the past? Apprrciate your help! Thanks Arjun
Link Building | | BaselineTry0 -
Nofollow links showing up in Google Search Console
If some nofollow links are showing up in Google Search Console, does that mean they are indeed passing link juice?
Link Building | | BrightonRecoveryCenter0 -
Redirects affect on page and domain authority
Hi - excuse me if this is stupid question but I'm rather new to this. Currently the PA for the home page is 16 and the DA 28 and I have some concerns that my efforts are being diluted. When I use OSE on www.sassandgrace.co.uk I get different link results to sassandgrace.co.uk but there is a redirect in place to sassandgrace.co.uk and cannot run a crawl report, for example, on www.sassandgrace.co.uk. The PA and DA are identical for each but the number of links different With a smallish number of links pointing to each but with a redirect in place, am I losing some of the effect or is having the redirect in place giving me all the credit for links to both addresses? Thanks
Link Building | | Sassandgrace0 -
What's the difference between follow and nofollow links?
I understand this may be a really dumb question and from my understanding there is a piece of code in some url's that tell search engines not to follow that link. I am interested in finding out what the purpose of nofollow links are and how they apply to search rankings. Thanks for the help
Link Building | | A2890