Hijacks by 302 Redirect

Though far from a new issue, page hijacks by 302 redirects have been getting a great deal of press recently. The rumbling started back as early as September 2004 as in this thread from
Webmaster World. Search Engine Watch forums have a thread Come on Google, Fix it!!! on the issue as well where GoogleGuy made a few posts on the issue including this one asking for examples. That thread dates back to November 2004. After a lot of screaming from the SEO community, Slashdot discovered the problem and chewed over it in their inimitable fashion. A little while later, they picked it up again for another go round. Hopefully the wider exposure will prompt a response since repeated cries from webmasters have gone unheeded.

The most comprehensive report on the problem so far is this one by Claus Schmidt. It’s worth noting that while this hijack works in Google and MSN, Yahoo seems to have figured it out.

At the moment, Google returns about 18,600 results for 302 hijack. It’s about time they did something about it.

Susan Esparza is former managing editor at Bruce Clay Inc., and has written extensively for clients and internal publications. Along with Bruce Clay, she is co-author of the first edition of Search Engine Optimization All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

See Susan's author page for links to connect on social media.