301 SEO Experts. Would This Work?

[dp40oz]

Say you built 20 pages on your website with the intention of only ranking 1 page for a keyword phrase. Now you build links to all 20 pages and then after about 2 months you 301 redirect the other 19 pages to the one main page. Would this give that 1 page most of the 19 other pages link juice?

I ask because this would be a great way to exploit link juice for quick link building. I mean if it did work you could even go further and have pages from other domains all building tons of links and then start 301 redirecting them until all that link juice is focused on 1 page. Just a thought. I'd love to know the reality of this.

[nicktyler]

I see no reason why this wouldn't work. It is the same as butying an aged domain that has good PR and links and redirecting everything to your main page.

[JamesM]

Yes it would work. You'd lose a bit of juice when doing the 301, but that's generally thought to be a marginal amount. I have a site where I changed domains and the PR and rankings carried over with no discernible loss.

I'm not sure you'd gain much from this technique though, as you'd still be having to create deeplinks to internal pages - why not just backlink a single page to start with?

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by JamesM

Yes it would work. You'd lose a bit of juice when doing the 301, but that's generally thought to be a marginal amount. I have a site where I changed domains and the PR and rankings carried over with no discernible loss.

I'm not sure you'd gain much from this technique though, as you'd still be having to create deeplinks to internal pages - why not just backlink a single page to start with?

Basically because you can get away with so many more links quickly if they are to different pages. For example you could just pound endless amounts of links all in one day to a ton of pages. Then just slowly start redirecting them. In theory you could do almost all your link building for a page in 1 day.

There is no way you could build enough links for a somewhat competitive keyword in a week without getting flagged. But if this works you could easily do it without raising any flags or penalties. I'll test this one out.

[simonbuzz]

Yes you can do that...but your page won't get the full backlink juice...

[BarryWheeler]

Sure, go ahead and do it.

You think you have trouble with the Panda Update.

You'll definitely have trouble in this way simply because Google does log all the 301 redirects and seeing all the links suddenly get 301'd to your "single" page .... major red flag.

I suggest you watch the video Matt Cutts did on this which is also linked through here - 301 redirects - Webmaster Tools Help

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by BarryWheeler

Sure, go ahead and do it.

You think you have trouble with the Panda Update.

You'll definitely have trouble in this way simply because Google does log all the 301 redirects and seeing all the links suddenly get 301'd to your "single" page .... major red flag.

I suggest you watch the video Matt Cutts did on this which is also linked through here - 301 redirects - Webmaster Tools Help

Thanks for that Barry. Great find.

[BarryWheeler]

Originally Posted by dp40oz

Thanks for that Barry. Great find.

You're welcome.

I've redesigned several sites for individuals, including my own that resulted in the URL structure being altered. The 301 redirects were put internal and weren't done to manipulate the rankings or provide extra juice for a single page.

I also did some SEO work where a firm had recommended building pages, getting links then 301 redirected them to a single sales page. It was a mess in the search engines and the site performed terrible.

What you can do is develop a more strategic internal linking structure from within your content. This is something you have control over and it is much more transparent than 301s.

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by BarryWheeler

You're welcome.

I've redesigned several sites for individuals, including my own that resulted in the URL structure being altered. The 301 redirects were put internal and weren't done to manipulate the rankings or provide extra juice for a single page.

I also did some SEO work where a firm had recommended building pages, getting links then 301 redirected them to a single sales page. It was a mess in the search engines and the site performed terrible.

What you can do is develop a more strategic internal linking structure from within your content. This is something you have control over and it is much more transparent than 301s.

I have a question for you. What got me thinking about all of this was one of my sites was hit hard by panda. I am thinking it was because some of my pages probably could be combined. This is not the actual niche but for example I had pages like:

Foot Fungus in People Over 40
Foot Fungus in Men Over 40
Foot Fungus in Women Over 40

So I figured i'd combine all the content onto the "Foot Fungus in People Over 40" then redirect the other 2 pages to that page. All 3 of the pages were extremely strong and had a ton of links before Panda so I started thinking "wow if Foot Fungus in People Over 40 comes back from this it will be close to 3 times as strong."

Is this the proper way to go about making this kind of site structure change?

[purecapitalist]

If you're into 301 manipulation, you'll love bluehatseo.com

He talks about using this theory to get database sites indexed and ranking. Basically after you build a few links and the page gets spidered with it's content, that page the rolls over and dies while 301ing to a page (off domain) in your network.

Your theory would probably work best if you only 301'd a % of the pages ... having more than 1 page on the site indexed will help your serps as well as having deep pages linked for a % of the site's total link portfolio.

edit: Now that I think about it, you might be better off leaving the pages of content up and removing all other links (sitemenu, ...) and just having a single keyword rich link pointing where you want the juice to go. Results will probably be better as internal anchoring is more powerful than just the 301'd juice transfer you're suggesting

[BarryWheeler]

Originally Posted by dp40oz

I have a question for you. What got me thinking about all of this was one of my sites was hit hard by panda. I am thinking it was because some of my pages probably could be combined. This is not the actual niche but for example I had pages like:

Foot Fungus in People Over 40
Foot Fungus in Men Over 40
Foot Fungus in Women Over 40

So I figured i'd combine all the content onto the "Foot Fungus in People Over 40" then redirect the other 2 pages to that page. All 3 of the pages were extremely strong and had a ton of links before Panda so I started thinking "wow if Foot Fungus in People Over 40 comes back from this it will be close to 3 times as strong."

Is this the proper way to go about making this kind of site structure change?

This is where people get themselves into a bit of trouble.

Given you have all your links directed to these 3 pages, redirecting them to a single, redesigned page could create the impression of trying to manipulate the search engine rankings. The fact you've said it would be "close to 3 times as strong" is the kicker in this.

Doing a 301 redirect in this case would get your site into further trouble.

Chances are if you took a hit in the Panda update, there may be problems with content, user experience etc. It is not necessarily about the number of links. It could have more to do with how those links were obtained (ie article directories, reciprocal links).

It's a little hard to make a call on what may be the cause without knowing the real site and doing an indepth analysis.

However, with what you are describing doing, I would avoid it. It's the perception, not the intent that may come into play.

Hope this helps.

Barry