17 Feb 2012
Effects of using JavaScript Redirect
In the last post ,we discussed how to redirect your blog to blogspot.com always. This simple trick has really far reaching effects on the Load Time, Usability, SEO, etc. We will be discussing them in-detail, in the following post. JavaScript Redirects are not really used much on the web as 301's and 302's can handle the job. The reason we are using them is because Blogger doesn't give us Server side access. Lets get started now1. Load Time
As there is redirect involved , there will be some extra time taken at the user-end. After rigorously testing it with GTmetrix ,it averaged around 1 second. Here is a picture describing it
An extra second will not hurt much, but the best possible solution to this is to place the JavaScript near the top of the page, for best results just after the <head> tag
2. Usability
As the URL changes , the person visiting the blog might not either be able to notice it or think there is something sneaky with the site. If the person does notice it ,another effect can be the less likability of clicking it again.
3. SEO
This is a multifaceted thing. There are lots of angles to it.
a) Indexing
According to various articles , Web crawlers do not take into account JavaScript in the pages. But the Search-Bots are being constantly updated. In the Past, the nature of these kind of redirects has been a bit shady but there is no need to worry. As all the pages of your blog have rel=Canonical tag. This tells the search-bot that the current page is just a copy of the original page. Accordingly now, the best place to place the redirect JavaScript is after the following code in the Edit HTML of your blog:
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
b) Reputation
There is no effects on the Search Engines evaluation of your blog as the presences of the Canonical tag nullifies the effects of the Redirect.
c) Country specific problems
As ccTLD's were introduced to make it easier for Governments to ban a blog in their region ,this might become a problem. I started a thread in the Google Webmaster Forum, and here are some of the replies:
An Level 11 moderator replied to it and slightly suggested that Google might not like it. You can also drop-by and voice your opinion on the thread . Here is the Link
4. Alexa Ranking
This is the biggest plus of using the Redirect script. As all traffic is channeled to .com domain, the Alexa ranking remain consistent all throughout. As the rank is not distributed between country specific URLs, its easier for Alexa to estimate your rank correctly.
All-in-all the Redirect Script has a positive effect on your blog. Rest we will see as it unfolds. Have you experienced any thing unusual while using the Redirect, feel free to share it.
Til next time,
Prayag Verma
at 03:42
