Re: Can PHP redirects be detected?

From: "Lowell Allen" <la@lowellallen.com> > A recent thread on the WebDesign-L raised the question of whether search > engines can detect (and penalize sites for) PHP redirects of the form: > > header("Location: http://www.whatever.com/"); > > I don't see how that could be the case, since the redirect occurs on the > server before any HTML is output to the browser. Someone else says: No, that's not the case. What you quoted below is correct. > > No, the header() redirect immediately tells the /client/ to make a second > > GET request at a different location and the client (search bot) must > > actively make that 2nd request to the "Location:" URL (what happens if you > > request amazon.com) Note this is different from simply sniffing the UA > > string from a single request and serving altered content. > > What say you, PHP list? Would it be better (in terms of search engine > detection) to use include() to serve different or altered content? As for whether a redirect is penalized or not, I doubt it. It'd be in the best interest of the search engine to follow the link just like it's going to follow any link on a page and index the content. Now, whether the indexed content will show up at domain.com in the search engine or domain.com/redirected/url/page.php, I don't know. ---John Holmes...