CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-mvchttp-redirectseositemap
DaveDev
DaveDev

Reputation: 42225

Question on generating a site map, where the URLs will redirect to other pages?

We're trying to generate a site map for a web application we're building. I'm a little unsure about some of the links I should supply in the site map.

Currently, our application behaves as follows. There are links to factsheets like this:

/Factsheet/{id}

When the request comes in, we take the id value and determine what type of factsheet should be shown. Then we issue a redirect to either 

/ListedFactsheet/{id}

or 

/UnListedFactsheet/{id}

This works fine. We wanted to keep the original URL because it's easier for the user to just type /Factsheet/{id} rather than them having to know whether the id they have applies to a listed or unlisted factsheet.

The problem now is that I'm not sure whether I should put the direct link to the listed or unlisted factsheets in the site map, or if it's ok to supply the simpler /Factsheet/{id} URL. Also, if I put the simpler URL into the site map, then the URLs will correspond directly to what Google crawls on the site, if that makes any difference.

What will it mean to Google if every link in the site map gets redirected to a different page? Could this reflect poorly in the page's ranking? Are there other implications that I should know about?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 871

Answers (2)

Franz Enzenhofer
Franz Enzenhofer

Reputation: 3816

ok

only communicate endpoint URLs (no redirect) to google via the sitemap.xml. (if you do otherwise you will even get a error/warning in google webmaster tools).

the sitemap.xml is a way to communicate the URLs you want google to crawl and index (and show to the users). a redirect (either an HTTP 301 as an HTTP 302) is just "balast" for Google (and the users by the way) so only communicate end point URLs to them.

by the way, you should question the whole logic. if you use one URL for - easy - communication and one for "what it really is" you should just use

/factsheet/{id}

and render the content within this URL - instead of an redirect. the users do not care (and hey, they do not type URLs anyway, typing URLs was so 1998) and you should try to prevent redirects whenever possible (from a SEO and user perspective).

also you should be aware that the redirects (if you really really need them) are HTTP 301 redirects. (HTTP 301 permanent redirect == good for SEO (in 99,99999% of all cases, HTTP 302 redirect bad for SEO (in 99,99999999% of all cases)).

Upvotes: 1

DisgruntledGoat
DisgruntledGoat

Reputation: 72580

If you can, it's certainly better to use direct links to 'ListedFactsheet' or 'UnListedFactsheet'. There are a few other issues to look at:

  • Is the URL containing the factsheet link public (i.e. doesn't require an account)? If not, then Google won't see them and you can use whatever's simplest.
  • Will the URLs change? In other words, will an 'unlisted factsheet' become a 'listed factsheet' at some point, and vice-versa? If they will change then it's more difficult. You could redirect from one version to another but are perhaps better off just displaying the pages on /Factsheet/{id} in the first instance and not redirecting at all.
  • If by sitemap you mean an XML sitemap for search engines, then you should use the final URLs. If you mean an HTML sitemap for users, then either is fine, though again the final URLs would be preferred.

Upvotes: 0

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