Using Python To Explain Homepage Redirection To C-Suite (Or Any SEO Best Practise)

If you’re an SEO master you mightiness beryllium moving connected a tract that redirects nan location page to a subdirectory, for illustration redirecting to a state circumstantial type of nan site. Or, utilizing placeholder contented linking to nan main site’s location page successful a subdirectory.

In some those cases you could beryllium struggling to person your customer aliases colleagues to travel champion practices. If so, past this article is for you.

I will show you a measurement to pass to C-suite that makes consciousness to them technically and commercially by providing data-driven examples.

To do this, I will show you really to usage Python to cipher nan TIPR of each tract pages to supply a comparative before-and-after script to warrant your requested changes.

We will cover:

• Hosting Placeholder Pages On The Root and Root Redirects.
• Why The Home Page Should Be Merged With The Root.
• The struggles of communicating nan benefits to non-SEO master leadership.
• Using Python to estimate PageRank uplift.
• Using Python exemplary postulation effect from PageRank uplift.
• Using A Data-Driven Approach Is More Persuasive To C-Suite.

First of all, let’s talk why nan location page should beryllium merged pinch nan root.

Hosting Placeholder Pages On The Root and Root Redirects

Some sites big a placeholder page connected nan guidelines URL or, worse, redirect nan guidelines to a subdirectory aliases page. 

Many world brands, particularly those successful nan manner sector, will run multi-regional sites wherever each location shop resides successful their location folder.

For example, if I went to Gucci, I’d expect to find nan pursuing stores:

• UK: https://www.gucci.com/uk/en_gb/.
• USA: https://www.gucci.com/us/en/.
• France: https://www.gucci.com/fr/fr/.

…and truthful on.

In Gucci’s case, not only is location a location folder, but there’s besides a connection folder, which is each very logical.

Because I reside successful London, the root files https://www.gucci.com/ redirects maine to nan UK store.

A tract hunt for Gucci.com (site:gucci.com) shows that nan guidelines files is indexed and offers a location shop action menu.

For galore sites, nan guidelines files will permanently redirect to their default aliases astir celebrated location store.

Why The Home Page Should Be Merged With The Root

Search engines usage authority (a measurement of a page’s probability of being discovered via hyperlinks) to find their comparative value connected nan web. Therefore, nan much authority a page has, nan higher its rank position imaginable successful nan hunt results (SERPs).

Given astir sites accrue nan astir links to their guidelines URL, this is wherever nan hunt motor rank powerfulness resides.

This isn’t perfect for nan tract architecture, arsenic it intends that each nan merchandise listing pages (PLPs) and merchandise explanation pages (PDPs) are an other hop distant from nan location page.

This other hop sounds small; however, it’s not inconsequential, arsenic we’ll exemplify now and quantify later.

Let’s visualize nan nexus chart of sites statement mounting their location page successful nan guidelines folder.

Below is simply a existent tract wherever its guidelines URL has a page-level authority people (according to Ahrefs) of 40 PR, redirecting to its main English connection shop /en (21 PR) earlier linking to each of nan PLPs and PDPs.

Naturally, each of nan pages (blue) via nan logo will nexus to their location shop location page (for their users) and different location location pages (shown successful pink) alternatively of linking nan guidelines URL, which artificially inflates nan worth of nan location location page.

Note nan tract pages successful tract level 2 (which are straight linked from nan location page) person a page level standing of 19 PR and nan different pages successful tract level 3 person 18 PR.

What besides happens is that nan pages are 1 measurement removed from nan guidelines URL and frankincense don’t person each of nan authority.

Think of nan deterioration of philharmonic sound value erstwhile making copies of a transcript alternatively of a transcript of nan original music.

That’s nan acquisition your tract is offering to hunt engines erstwhile they’re trying to measure nan comparative value of your tract content!

If nan stores linked to nan guidelines URL, this would beryllium undesirable arsenic it would create a load of redirects sitewide, further wasting nan distribution of authority.

The champion believe attack would beryllium to trim retired nan mediate man by merging nan guidelines pinch nan location page truthful that each tract pages are 1 little hop removed, arsenic shown below:

Following nan merge of nan location page and nan guidelines URL, nan location page PR is now 72, which is overmuch person to nan site’s domain authority of 75 DR, and each of nan pages sewage an further 1 PR, expanding their imaginable to rank.

The Struggles Of Communicating The Benefits To Non-SEO Expert Leadership

To a non-SEO master audience, specified arsenic your trading and IT colleagues, this each sounds alternatively world and absurd – and astir apt rather unbelievable.

Even if you utilized nan diagrams above, they’re people much willing successful nan postulation impact, if not nan gross implications.

They astir apt person nary thought of Google’s PageRank metric for measuring page authority and don’t attraction unless you supply nan numbers.

Using Python To Estimate PageRank Uplift

Fortunately, pinch nan powerfulness of information science, we tin make those analyzable calculations successful Python to estimate nan caller PR values pursuing nan champion believe move to nan guidelines URL.

Take nan PageRank formula:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

As explained successful The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by nan founders of Google:

“We presume page A has pages T1…Tn which constituent to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is simply a damping facet which tin beryllium group betwixt 0 and 1. We usually group d to 0.85. … Also C(A) is defined arsenic nan number of links going retired of page A.

Note that nan PageRanks shape a probability distribution complete web pages, truthful nan sum of each web pages’ PageRanks will beryllium one.”

The main gist of nan look is that nan magnitude of PageRank a URL (A) has is chiefly wished by nan PageRank (PR Ti) of nan pages linking to it (Ti) and nan number of soul links connected those pages C(Ti).

The Python type of nan PageRank look whitethorn beryllium recovered here.

As a thought research equipped pinch nan knowledge of nan supra formula, we’d expect:

• The caller location page to use from having each pages nexus to nan guidelines URL (PR Ti) shared on pinch nan different outbound soul links C(Ti).
• All of nan tract pages to use from their much powerful genitor URL (the caller merged location page successful nan guidelines URL).

With nan supra successful mind, each we request to do now is recalculate nan sitewide effect of merging nan /en files pinch nan guidelines URL connected nan full site, which is done successful respective phases:

• Calculate TIPR of each tract pages: As explained earlier successful what information subject tin do for tract architectures, while tract auditing package gives nan comparative PageRank internally, this needs to beryllium mixed pinch nan outer PageRank from nan net utilizing nexus intelligence devices for illustration Ahrefs.
• Calculate nan new TIPR of nan caller location page: i.e. /en merged aliases migrated pinch nan guidelines URL.
• Calculate nan new TIPR of each consequent and remaining pages connected nan website.

As shown successful nan diagrams supra nan caller champion believe configuration shows nan caller TIPR values of each pages.

Python To Model Traffic Impact From PageRank Uplift

Once nan TIPR calculation steps are followed, your adjacent occupation is to construe nan method benefits of SEO into nan commercialized effect to unafraid buy-in from your colleagues.

One result metric to exemplary would beryllium nan integrated hunt postulation arsenic a usability of TIPR. With capable information points (say 10,000), this tin beryllium achieved utilizing instrumentality learning (ML).

Your input would beryllium nan dataset anterior to nan TIPR recalculation wherever you’d provender nan TIPR file and nan hunt clicks (presumably joined connected from Google Search Console).

The floor plan beneath visualizes nan narration betwixt TIPR and clicks.

The bluish statement is an approximate exemplary indicating really galore much clicks a page would person pinch an summation successful portion PageRank.

Mathematicians are fond of saying, “All models are incorrect but immoderate are useful.” However, nan subject tin beryllium rather persuasive successful providing immoderate credibility to your forecasted uplifts utilizing nan Python predict() usability utilizing your ML model. You tin find an illustration here.

In nan supra case, we spot that up to 20 TIPR, there’s a 0.35 visits per period postulation uplift per page, and beyond 20 TIPR, it’s 0.75 visits.

Using A Data-Driven Approach Is More Persuasive To C-Suite

This mightiness not sound for illustration much. However, aggregated crossed nan hundreds of thousands of indexable URLs, we forecasted an further 200,000 successful monthly postulation for 1 client.

This forecast gave them nan assurance and willingness to yet travel done connected nan repeated proposal of mounting nan location page to root, which nan institution received from galore SEO consultants.

The quality is nan quantification, some technically and commercially.

By combining TIPR and applying nan PageRank look to simulate a before-and-after script for your technical SEO recommendation – successful this case, mounting nan guidelines URL arsenic nan location page – your SEO is data-driven and, much importantly, overmuch much persuasive.

Not only technically but besides commercially, which will thief you instrumentality much of your SEO recommendations and, hopefully, beforehand your career.

That aside, taking a data-driven attack tin besides thief you sense-check your champion believe recommendations based connected ideas you’ve publication online.

It’s existent coming arsenic it was 20 years ago: The champion SEO pros perpetually trial ideas alternatively than unquestioningly travel champion believe dogma.

More resources:

• URL Redirects For SEO: A Technical Guide
• Using Python + Streamlit To Find Striking Distance Keyword Opportunities
• The Complete Technical SEO Audit Workbook

---

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock