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Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Redirects are often used by webmasters to help forward visitors from one page to another. They are
a normal part of how the web operates, and are very valuable when well used. However, some
redirects are designed to manipulate or deceive search engines or to display different content to
human users than to search engines. Our
quality guidelines
strictly forbid these kinds of redirects.
For example, desktop users might receive a normal page, while hackers might redirect all mobile
users to a completely different spam domain. To help webmasters better recognize problematic
redirects, we have updated our quality guidelines for
sneaky redirects with examples
that illustrate redirect-related violations.
As with any violation of our quality guidelines, we may take manual action, including removal from
our index, in order to maintain the quality of the search results. If you have any questions about
our guidelines, you can ask in our
Webmaster Help Forum.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eRedirects designed to manipulate search engines or show different content to users and search engines violate Google's quality guidelines.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle updated its guidelines with examples to help webmasters identify sneaky redirects and included redirects in hacked content guidelines.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCompromised websites with redirects should be diagnosed and fixed using the provided resources.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle may take manual action, such as removing sites from their index, for any violation of these guidelines.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters with questions are encouraged to seek help in the Google Webmaster Help Forum.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Webmasters use redirects, but deceptive redirects, which manipulate search engines or show different content to users versus search engines, violate quality guidelines. Updated guidelines include examples of redirect violations and address redirects on compromised websites. If a site is compromised, webmasters should identify and fix the issues. Violations may result in manual action, including removal from the search index. Questions regarding guidelines can be asked in the Webmaster Help Forum.\n"],null,["Wednesday, April 30, 2014\n\n\nRedirects are often used by webmasters to help forward visitors from one page to another. They are\na normal part of how the web operates, and are very valuable when well used. However, some\nredirects are designed to manipulate or deceive search engines or to display different content to\nhuman users than to search engines. Our\n[quality guidelines](/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)\nstrictly forbid these kinds of redirects.\n\n\nFor example, desktop users might receive a normal page, while hackers might redirect all mobile\nusers to a completely different spam domain. To help webmasters better recognize problematic\nredirects, we have updated our quality guidelines for\n[sneaky redirects](/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#sneaky-redirects) with examples\nthat illustrate redirect-related violations.\n\n\nWe have also updated the\n[hacked content guidelines](/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/what-is-hacked) to include\nredirects on compromised websites. If you believe your site has been compromised, follow these\ninstructions to\n[identify the issues on your site and fix them](/web/fundamentals/security/hacked/hacked_with_spam).\n\n\nAs with any violation of our quality guidelines, we may take manual action, including removal from\nour index, in order to maintain the quality of the search results. If you have any questions about\nour guidelines, you can ask in our\n[Webmaster Help Forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community/).\n\nPosted by [Aaseesh Marina](https://twitter.com/aaseeshmarina), Search Quality Team"]]
