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I have a site with content in multiple languages. The pages are structured like this:

www.domain.com/en/
www.domain.com/fr/
www.domain.com/de/

On the root folder, I have an ASP file that redirects to /en/ by default. It's using this statement:

Response.Redirect("/en/")

Is this good SEO practice? Or should I use a 301 redirect?

greener
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  • Search engines can't read server side code so I wouldn't have thought how you get to your desired URL matters. Are you using IIS7? If you are then you can use the URL rewrite module, it might be easier than lots of Response.Redirect statements – John Nov 26 '13 at 23:49
  • `Response.Redirect` generates a HTTP redirect in the client, so it absolutely matters. Please see my answer below. – Polynomial Nov 28 '13 at 13:31

1 Answers1

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I believe Response.Redirect in ASP classic generates HTTP status code 302. The situation you describe certainly seems to fit 301 more than 302. A 302 is useful in situations where a redirect is conditional - for example redirecting after a successful form post. In these cases the redirect is just a one off and not permanent. For you, using 301 means that your redirect will be cacheable, 'link juice' is transferred correctly, and these will likely both confer SEO advantages for you.

Some links you may find useful, especially the final one:

http://blog.woorank.com/2013/05/the-flow-of-link-juice/

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html

ASP.NET Response.Redirect uses 302 instead of 301 (This is an ASP.NET topic, but I believe classic generates the same code for a redirect and much of the discussion still applies)

http://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection

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Polynomial
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