Google Confirms: 301 Redirects Result in PageRank Loss!

Monday, March 15th, 2010 by Andy Beal

Google Confirms: 301 Redirects Result in PageRank Loss!

I don’t often jump into the world of SEO advice–there are plenty of excellent blogs that do that–but when Google’s Matt Cutts confirms that 301 redirects do, in fact, lose PageRank, well, that’s worth sharing.

Eric Enge gets the scoop–boy, is he gonna get a lot of backlinks from this–getting Matt Cutts to confirm something that I have suspected and cautioned clients for many years: 301′ing from an old domain to another, does result in PageRank decay. Here’s the quote:

I can certainly see how there could be some loss of PageRank. I am not 100 percent sure whether the crawling and indexing team has implemented that sort of natural PageRank decay, so I will have to go and check on that specific case. (Note: in a follow on email, Matt confirmed that this is in fact the case. There is some loss of PR through a 301).

So now you know. But, don’t stop there, read the rest of the interview, you may just learn some other propaganda SEO tips.

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22 comments on “Google Confirms: 301 Redirects Result in PageRank Loss!”

Joe M Says:

March 15th, 2010 at 10:24 am

So, what’s the preferred method to move from an old domain to a new one, and not suffer PageRank loss?

Andy Beal Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 10:40 am
I don’t think you have much choice. Your “some loss of PageRank” will vary, so you may not even notice.
Mark Aaron Murnahan Says:

March 15th, 2010 at 12:44 pm

Some loss of PageRank is a whole lot better than losing the whole thing. Moving content is always less desirable than putting it in the right place the first time.
Mark Aaron Murnahan´s last blog ..Creative Marketing: How Important is Creativity in Marketing?
Jill Says:

March 15th, 2010 at 1:23 pm

That sure didn’t read like a confirmation to me. Are we reading the same quote?

All he said was he could “see how there could be.”
Jill´s last blog ..Is Your Website User-Centric or Company-Focused?

Andy Beal Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
“(Note: in a follow on email, Matt confirmed that this is in fact the case. There is some loss of PR through a 301)”
Marjory Says:

March 15th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

He said that ages ago. When people asked if there would be PageRank loss with the link canonical tag, his response was that it would be about as much as would be lost with 301 redirects.

I sort of took that to mean that there would be some loss.
Jaan Kanellis Says:

March 15th, 2010 at 2:11 pm

So I assume he is talking about one domain to another? Not internal 301 redirects that done very often through design changes?

What about the Webmaster Tools feature that signals directly to Google that a domain is moving? Is their decay there?

What about the canonical tag they Google as preached to use. Is their decay there?

Why does Google say something like this without explaining the full story?
Wynne Says:

March 15th, 2010 at 3:52 pm

Although this is news, I always suspected this was the case anyway.
Wynne´s last blog ..The Importance of Building Rapport Before Direct Marketing
Matt Cutts Confirms: 301 Redirects Lose Page Rank Says:

March 15th, 2010 at 4:21 pm

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John Peter Says:

March 16th, 2010 at 3:53 am

Is this true?
Michael Says:

March 16th, 2010 at 9:33 am

I had always heard this but it was never explained that well. Thanks for sharing.
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March 16th, 2010 at 12:12 pm

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March 22nd, 2010 at 10:25 pm

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Natalie Mia Says:

March 30th, 2010 at 6:44 am

I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in this article. The major search engine google conforming that 301 redirects result in the loss of page rank.

Hopefully more people can learn from this post what I have. i liked it.. thanks for sharing the post as it is more informative.
Alex Cruz Says:

April 3rd, 2010 at 10:11 am

Great blog, I look forward to reading more from you in the future!
renan Says:

April 7th, 2010 at 3:39 am

i used 301 redirect if one of my website is down. But not regularly if my tv series site have lots of visitors it become down. so i need to redirect to other site.
Rajeel Says:

April 11th, 2010 at 12:49 am

Ya, it’s right. When i moved my blog from blogspot to my domain, i got my current PR (3) transfered to my new domain – labofweb.com. But after on the last update, as the links to my old blogs increased (links from themes i designed), it’s PR increased to 4 and still when i checked with PRchecker, it shows PR 4. But currently my new blog has only PR 2. Lost 1 due to bad seo……

This shows that 301 too can lose PR

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