I was redirecting a web page with a 302 redirect accidentally and I found out that the page which was being redirected got a PageRank of 2 which is the same PR as that of the landing page. Here’s the scenario:
1. Redirect Page A to Page B with a 302
2. If Page B has PR5, Page A will be assigned PR5 in the next PR update as long as the 302 redirect is still up.
Now you may be wondering why you would want to do such a thing. Well for people who sell links on their sites, they want to have the highest PR to get the maximum value for the links placed. If they have been 302 redirecting to a site they own which has a PR of 6, then even though the other URL does not have any incoming links, it will be assigned PR6. Once the visual toolbar is updated, they will then remove the redirect and when you go to that page, you will see a fake PR of 6 for a site which doesn’t have any backlinks. If they don’t remove the redirect, you will be redirected to the real url with real PR (but that’s going to defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it).
So before buying any links, make sure you’re checking the backlinks in yahoo explorer for credibility!