Is it possible to redirect a domain while keeping that domain in Google search results?

Is it possible to redirect a domain while keeping that domain in Google search results? - If a page has internal and external outgoing links to redirecting URLs, it’s returning 3xx (301, 302, etc.) HTTP status codes standing for redirection. This issue means that the page does not exist on a permanent or temporary basis. It appears on most of the popular web browsers, usually caused by a misconfigured website. However, there are some steps you can take to ensure the issue isn’t on your side. You can find more details about redirecting URLs by reading the Google Search Central overview. In this article, we’ll go over how you can fix the Is it possible to redirect a domain while keeping that domain in Google search results? error on your web browser. Problem :

I have a domain name, https://seo.example.com/, that is currently showing up in Google Search results. I want to set up a redirect such that when visitors view that domain, they are immediately redirected to a different domain, https://www.example.com/seo/. The complicating part is that I also want to keep the original domain in the Google search results instead of having Google display the redirect target.

My first thought was to use a 302 redirect from https://seo.example.com/ to https://www.example.com/seo/, and set a canonical meta tag on the target page with the content https://seo.example.com/. Would this accomplish my goal of keeping the original domain in Google search while also redirecting away from it, or would Google consider this an improper use of the canonical tag and tank the search ranking of one or both pages?

Is there a way to do this above water or is it impossible by design?

Solution :

Google is unlikely to return the source of a redirect in organic search results, even a 302 (temporary) redirect, for very long. Particularly when the target URL is a different hostname.

Would this [canonical meta tag] accomplish my goal of keeping the original domain in Google search while also redirecting away from it, or would Google consider this an improper use of the canonical tag and tank the search ranking of one or both pages?

The meta tag will likely be ignored. It does not make sense for Google to penalise such "improper use". The canonical meta tag is simply a suggestion. An external redirect is a much stronger suggestion.

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However, unless you are restricted by your host in some way, you should never need to do this kind of redirect - so I'm curious as to the backstory here?

• Can you not change the subdomain / server config so that it points to the correct location directly?




• If you are wanting to maintain the URL and serve the content from a different host then you should consider implementing a reverse proxy instead.




• If www.example.com/seo/ is actually on the same server (same filesystem) - as implied by the same example.com domain - then you may only need an internal rewrite.

Theoretically, a 302 (type: Found / Moved Temporarily) redirect maintains the PageRank, MozRank, Page Authority and Traffic Value of the current page, and not pass any of this onto the redirected page. However, in practice that doesn't seem to be what happens.

Here are a couple of examples of a 302 redirect that was left permanently in place, and the testing done on them:

1. Example 1 - page links went back and forth in the indexes


2. Example 2 - after 3 months the 302 page lost all Pagerank

What it does show is that Google gets confused by a permanent 302, and it does ultimately pass PageRank through.

So proceed with a lot of caution. You should keep an eye on your links, as you may find that it will begin losing some of its ranking.

I wouldn't be doing this on an important page, and would recommend you test using a 302 and a 307 (which replaces the old 302) on some unimportant pages. See Moz for more details: Moz's page on redirection

I am unaware of any other method (html or htaccess redirects etc.) which is going to achieve your end goal. Either way Googlebot is going to make a choice, and if it can't decide, it may negatively affect your PageRank.

We hope that this article has helped you resolve the seo, redirects, canonical-url error in your web browsers. Enjoy browsing the internet uninterrupted!