The Google Forum

**Jasonpv** · 01-28-2009, 08:43 AM

Hello, I am sure this is a question that has been asked before but just wanted some clarification on some conflicting info I found. When you setup a redirect php page for a domain other than your "main domain", does google penalize you for this?

**chrishirst** · 01-28-2009, 11:33 AM

Nope.

**Jasonpv** · 01-28-2009, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Nope.

Thanks chrishirst! To add, will bots pick up any html code that comes after php tags in this redirect page?

**wayfarer07** · 01-28-2009, 03:19 PM

No, PHP redirects (which are HTTP header redirects) function before any HTML is outputted.

**Jasonpv** · 01-28-2009, 04:02 PM

And finally, if I happen to add some text inside the php tags for SEO will the page be penalized? I am basically trying to find a good way to get more traffic to the site. I bought several more domains that are along the lines of what the company does and would like to have google see these for their content, then redirect to the main site. Is this a good strategy??

**chrishirst** · 01-28-2009, 04:07 PM

How can it be penalised for something that won't ever be seen?

**Jasonpv** · 08:00 PM

What if I did something like this:

Code:

<?
$var1 = "text for SEO";
header("Location: http://myredirect.com");
?>

I guess my question is, is there any way to add meta tags and such to a php redirect page so that it will be seen by crawlers?

**wayfarer07** · 01-28-2009, 08:08 PM

Nothing can be outputted in order for redirects to function. If you output anything, then attempt to redirect, you will receive an error. Although, your example didn't actually output anything.

**Jasonpv** · 01-28-2009, 08:29 PM

I guess my question is then, do crawlers recognize php code?

**chrishirst** · 01-29-2009, 10:54 AM

If they see it, there is a problem with your server.

**wayfarer07** · 01-29-2009, 11:01 AM

You need to understand something. PHP is something that happens before anything is sent to the browser or any web-crawler. If PHP is working on the server, any client-side web agent will have no idea it is there at all. PHP outputs HTML when programmed to, but as far as the world and Google is concerned, HTML is all that exists.

**Jasonpv** · 01-29-2009, 11:24 PM

Okay, that makes sense. So there really is no way to accomplish this then aside from creating a "shell" web page that links to the main page? Would this be the best way to do this? Is this even very beneficial to increase SEO?

**chrishirst** · 01-31-2009, 08:58 AM

Increase SEO???

**Jasonpv** · 01-31-2009, 04:49 PM

Sorry, poor selection of wording...acquire, gain, obtain, implement. Is it an effective way of getting more exposure to (or in your case, advertise) my site? Is it worth the extra domain costs, time? Just want some advice...

**chrishirst** · 01-31-2009, 06:09 PM

Unless you are prepared to provide different content for all the sites, get links to all the sites and promote all the sites, thereby creating independent entities that can stand on their own rather than them being there to simply prop-up the main site, there is little to no SE "benefit" in having them.
There is of course some business and marketing reasons why having several hostnames pointing to one site can be useful. There is also the "type in" value of some hostnames.
But beyond that, the value is minimal.

**Jasonpv** · 01-31-2009, 09:34 PM

Ok, thank you chris...

**timonweller79** · 02-01-2009, 01:13 AM

I wondered this question for ages as well, but now it seems they are telling webmasters to use redirects for affiliate programs etc..

**chrishirst** · 02-01-2009, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timonweller79

I wondered this question for ages as well, but now it seems they are telling webmasters to use redirects for affiliate programs etc..

You know, I just happen to know somebody who has some thoughts on that point