Freepgs recently changed my access URL from http://www.freepgs.com/ledbetter/ to http://ledbetter.freepgs.com/ and then set up a redirect. http://www.freepgs.com/ledbetter/ now redirects to http://ledbetter.freepgs.com/
I am under the impression that search engines do not like redirects and that my Page Rank (and traffic) will drop.
What does everyone else think about this situation?
It would take months to avoid the redirect by changing all the links pointing to my site.
I'm not impressed simply because I've had to repair all the settings for my forum to get it to work, the google side of it hadn't even occurred to me till you said! I'm not happy at all.
Google caluclates Page Rank based on links, and now all those links are obsolete - the redirect does nothing for the actual links pointing to our sites, and I'm afraid that the big link exchanges will automatically inactivate our old links.
Here is my email conversation with Freepgs.com (with the newest conversation first):
We seem to inherit the Alexa rank, not the Google Rank.
If you can, I would prefer that my URL remains http:/freepgs.com/ledbetter/ because that is what the links point to. And http:/freepgs.com/ledbetter/ is the URL all the link exchanges I belong to expect.
I'm afraid that the URL change is going cause me a lot of unnecessary work [and loss of money].
Max Ledbetter
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On 6/2/06, FreePgs Admin wrote:
- Hide quoted text -
You would have to ask Google about PR questions.
Typically users reported that when using the www.freepgs.com URL, their pages inherited the PR of the main site. If your pages have the same content, Google should update the URL and the PageRank should not change. (The URL has not dramatically changed)
Thank you,
FreePgs.com "Admin"
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Original Request
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Date: 2006-06-02 17:58:53
From: "ledbetter"
User: ledbetter -
Thank you for the subdomain, but it is my understanding that the redirect will trash my page ranks on the search engines. Am I wrong?
Most of my traffic arrives via search engines.
You recently changed my access URL from http://www.freepgs.com/ledbetter/ to http://ledbetter.freepgs.com/ and then set up a redirect. http://www.freepgs.com/ledbetter/ now redirects to http://ledbetter.freepgs.com/
Thank you,
Max Ledbetter
They are changing us over to subdomains, and I think it is going to cause us all a lot of work and money. My advertisers and affiliiate network accounts will most likely reject the new URL. Freepgs.com changed my url http://freepgs.com/ledbetter/ to http://ledbetter.freepgs.com
My advertisers and affiliate accounts (to mention a few) expect exact URLs. This change to a subdomain means I have to change my URL(s) in all those advertising accounts or I will not get credit for clicks etc.
This change to subdomains looks like it will cost me a lot of work (and reduce my "hourly wage" to pennies due to the fact that I will have to spend hours fixing the situation).
I would prefer that my URL remain http://www.freepgs.com/ledbetter/
We are going to have to change 1000s of links!!!
Google says on http://www.google.ca/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34464&topic=8523
QuoteGoogle listings are based in part on our ability to find you from links on other sites. To preserve your rank, you'll want to tell others who link to you of your change of address.
When I do a Google search for my Web site Free Web Hosting Reviewed, http://freepgs.com/ledbetter/wordpress/ , it comes up with 9,280 results. Here is the Google results page: http://www.google.ca/search?hs=Jmf&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=%22Free+Web+Hosting+Reviewed%22&btnG=Search&meta=
Check your new Google Pagerank for your new subdomain at http://www.netgets.com/scripts/pagerank.html
Would a real publisher or a library or something like Google make an unannouced change that affected or nullified months (or years) of their customers' work?
I would prefer http://freepgs.com/username as well
Hello,
I like the new sub domains, but not the way they where handled. It will not effect the smaller sites much but for sites like yours it could be devastating. I would think they used a 301 redirect for your site and if so it won't effect your page rank, at least not in the long run once the search engines have sorted out the new urls. For your other accounts I feel for you as I know how hard it is running a site and keeping on top of things.
All old URLs are now being redirected to the primary domain on file.
If your redirection does not work, please verify that the domains listed on the "URLs" page of the Optoins panel are still pointed to your account. If these domains are not valid, please use the Contact Form to request removal and assignment of a FreePgs subdomain.
Thank you,
FreePgs.com Admin
ledbetter, as it's using true redirects i don't think the links will still count (Not sure if google have something clever going on but as their reply says they will need changing?)
Also, with over 9000 links back your blog is only PR3?! I've got a site which when searching for the domain (www.vizaco.co.uk) returns no results and yet it is PR 4. Another search for another site using "Link: domain.com" returns 11 results and it's PR4 also.
It's about time for another PR update soon anyway?
-- Andy
Quote from: Osprey on June 04, 2006, 11:35:40 AM
ledbetter, as it's using true redirects i don't think the links will still count (Not sure if google have something clever going on but as their reply says they will need changing?)
Also, with over 9000 links back your blog is only PR3?! I've got a site which when searching for the domain (www.vizaco.co.uk) returns no results and yet it is PR 4. Another search for another site using "Link: domain.com" returns 11 results and it's PR4 also.
It's about time for another PR update soon anyway?
-- Andy
By the way, the freepgs.com pagerank is only 5 (PR5).
And !!!! now on http://system.freepgs.com/ freepgs.com is saying,
QuoteFor a limited time, all old URLs will be redirected to the primary domain on your account. (If you do not have a domain associated to your account, this will be your FreePgs subdomain entry)(2006-06-03 19:20:54 by admin)
I need a permanent redirect, not a "limited time" redirect.
Note that freepgs admin just replied to my email and said,
QuoteWe will most likely not remove the redirects.
My point ledbetter was not that your page has a low page rank, but that PR3 is relatively easy to achieve.
I personally would have expected over 9k links to lead to a higher PR. Are you using duplicate content or have lots of outgoing links?
Quote from: Osprey on June 04, 2006, 06:03:53 PM
My point ledbetter was not that your page has a low page rank, but that PR3 is relatively easy to achieve.
I personally would have expected over 9k links to lead to a higher PR. Are you using duplicate content or have lots of outgoing links?
I have lots of outgoing links on my 300+ page site http://freepgs.com/ledbetter/wordpress . Any duplicate content is on a couple of my
backup pages located elsewhere. If Google wants to penalize us for having backup pages (that do not duplicate the entire content of the original site), then Google is dead wrong and will continue to lose ground to MSN. MSN gives me far better rankings and exposure.
By the way, http://freepgs.com/ledbetter has far fewer incoming and outgoing links and has a Google PR4.
You could make the backup pages inaccessible in protected directorys or zipped files, or maybe robots.txt could help prevent them being indexed? The duplicate content thing is great, it prevents people from putting the same content everywhere. People who get articles from free sites for example, it tends to show a site thrown together quickly and therefore has lesser value. If i did a search for something and the top 20 results contained links to the same article on 20 different domains i wouldn't be too impressed.
It's easier to get higher ranks in MSN i find, thats a result of googles complex system for PRs though i would expect.
You could also consider linking a domain to your account?
Besides, It's only $3 hosting.
Quote from: Osprey on June 04, 2006, 07:33:26 PM
You could make the backup pages inaccessible in protected directorys or zipped files, or maybe robots.txt could help prevent them being indexed? The duplicate content thing is great, it prevents people from putting the same content everywhere. People who get articles from free sites for example, it tends to show a site thrown together quickly and therefore has lesser value. If i did a search for something and the top 20 results contained links to the same article on 20 different domains i wouldn't be too impressed.
It's easier to get higher ranks in MSN i find, thats a result of googles complex system for PRs though i would expect.
You could also consider linking a domain to your account?
Quote
Besides, It's only $3 hosting.
My main web site is "Free Web Hosting Reviewed" -- so the point is NOT to pay for hosting (Freepgs.com only charges a one-time fee).
I have paid-for domain names for a couple of my sites hosted elsewhere for free. But pointing a domain name to my freepgs account would point to ledbetter.freepg.com, not ledbetter.freepgs.com/wordpress (unless I modfied my .htaccess file - but I should not have to modify an .htaccess file to associate a domain with a subfolder, and I do not have to fool with htaccess when I point addon domains to subfolders in accounts hosted elsewhere).
Also, associating a domain would not solve the problem with all the old links pointing to freepgs.com/ledbetter/wordpress, etc. I'm not about to spend my time changing 100s and 1000s of links for pennies. Here is a bit of my attitude: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976748666
My backup pages (single-page snaphots of the Free Web Hosting Reviewed homepage) are online so that surfers can find them when my freepgs.com site is not accessible due to problems at freepgs.com. Therefore I want the backup pages indexed so that surfers can find them.
"Free Web Hosting Reviewed" does not bring in enough revenue for me to worry about Google's whims, and only one of the backup pages shows up in the top 5 Google results for the search "Free Web Hosting Reviewed."
The page rank problem may be due to the fact that the clixgalore.com affiliate network promotes (and redirects to) my site, which is fine because their links bring me quite a bit of traffic:
QuoteFree Web Hosting Reviewed
Free Web Hosting Reviewed. No-cost Mostly Ad-free Web Hosts and Related Services–by David Ledbetter. Web Hosting News (plus misc. info.) May 1st, 2006 ...
www.clixgalore.com/Lead.aspx?BID=2138&AfID=100492&AdID=478 - 90k - Cached - Similar pages
Thanks for the feedback.