Google: There is no PageRank dilution when using 301, 302, or 30x redirects anymore

Gary Illyes, a Google webmaster trends analyst, said yesterday that using a 301, 302 or 30x redirect of any kind will not result in a loss of PageRank, that there is no PageRank dilution.

Here is the tweet:

30x redirects don’t lose PageRank anymore.

— Gary Illyes (@methode) July 26, 2016

Back in 2010, we reported that there is some PageRank dilution when you use a 301 or other form of 30x redirect. But in 2013, Google’s Matt Cutts said 301 redirects don’t lose value. Matt Cutts said then, “The amount of PageRank that dissipates through a 301 is currently identical to the amount of PageRank that dissipates through a link.” Of course, here Matt was not talking about anything but a 301 redirect, but maybe 302 redirects did lose value.

John Mueller of Google did say the same thing earlier this year, but many SEOs honestly did not believe him. Gary Illyes must have checked with the engineers and tweeted that line to remove doubt. But still, there are many SEOs who simply do not believe Google.

Yesterday, I was able to ask John Mueller of Google directly about this, and he said Gary’s tweet is not giving us new information but rather confirming it. Mueller said that this has been like this “a while,” and it is not new.

Either way, Google is now telling us that any type of 3xx redirect does not lose any PageRank value.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.