Ver. 3 Redirects Do they work?

Well, from a users standpoint they do. But I am less sure about how google and other spiders with view them.  After using 4 of the available header status checking tools. All of them reported a problem on my site.  Based on the header response code the redirects are sending the browers to an invalid page.  Google could well be seeing a blank page with an error code.

Here are the results from my test on my site.  I would like to know if others are getting similar errors or if it is isolated to my site.  Do you  think it is a problem in the search engines eyes, even if  you can replicate the  results.



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URL=http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/productcart/pc/ViewC at_h.asp?idCategory=85
Result code: 301 (MovedPermanently / Moved Permanently)  [so far so good ]
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:14:27 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Location: viewcategories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H
Content-Length: 0
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDSQQDQQQQ=GHKJDLNAFEIHIOEKDFAMOFBJ; path=/
Cache-Control: private
New location: viewcategories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H
Location is not an absolute URL! [here is the problem ]
Assuming new URL is: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/productcart/pc/viewcateg ories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H

URL= http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/productcart/pc/viewcateg ories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H
Result code: 302 (Found / Moved Temporarily) [could live with this ]
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:14:28 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Pragma: no-cache
Location: msg.asp?message=86
Content-Length: 139
Content-Type: text/html
Expires: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:13:28 GMT
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDSQQDQQQQ=HHKJDLNAOHFCDHPMFMMKDDCE; path=/
Cache-Control: no-cache
New location: msg.asp?message=86
Location is not an absolute URL!
Assuming new URL is: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/productcart/pc/msg.asp?m essage=86 [ but then the tool did something unexpected   can not live with this if it is what the
spider is seeing and how it is reacting to the invalid header}


So another test
------------------------------------------------------------ --

using a google bot simulator

1. Requesting: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/productcart/pc/ViewCat_h .asp?idCategory=85
    GET /productcart/pc/ViewCat_h.asp?idCategory=85 HTTP/1.1
    Connection: Keep-Alive
    Keep-Alive: 300
    Accept:*/*
    Host: www.ultimatewatermassage.com
    Accept-Language: en-us
    Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
    User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

   Server Response: 301 Moved Permanently  [ Good ]
    Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:22:10 GMT
    Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
    MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
    X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
    Location: viewcategories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H
    Content-Length: 0
    Content-Type: text/html
    Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDSQQDQQQQ=LJKJDLNABAJIBNCKICLKGBGC; path=/
    Cache-control: private

Redirecting to viewcategories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H ... [ no so good ]

2. Requesting: viewcategories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H
    GET viewcategories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H HTTP/1.1
    Connection: Keep-Alive
    Keep-Alive: 300
    Accept:*/*
    Host:
    Accept-Language: en-us
    Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
    User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

WinHttp.WinHttpRequest error '80072ee6' [ Broke the tool ]

The URL does not use a recognized protocol

/tools/headers/index.asp, line 298
Cache-Control: private

------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------

Checked URL: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/productcart/pc/ViewCat_h .asp?idCategory=85
Status: 301
Location: viewcategories.asp?idCategory=85&pageStyle=H

It seems that the redirect goes to a partial url that is interpreted as an
invalid URL


To try and check it was not the just the tools or my site
I ran a few redirects I use for other SEO issues.
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------
A redirect I prepared to deal with a different duplicate content issue
A

. Requesting: http://64.187.108.246/links/alternativehealingproducts.htm
    GET /links/alternativehealingproducts.htm HTTP/1.1
    Connection: Keep-Alive
    Keep-Alive: 300
    Accept:*/*
    Host: 64.187.108.246
    Accept-Language: en-us
    Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
    User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0b; Windows NT 6.0)

   Server Response: 301 Moved Permanently
    Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:47:04 GMT
    Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
    MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
    X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
    Location: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/links/alternativehealing products.htm
    Content-Length: 17911
    Content-Type: text/html
    Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDSQRBRTRR=NINBMJPAPILPBPKJLEOJDILF; path=/
    Cache-control: private

Redirecting to http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/links/alternativehealing products.htm ...



2. Requesting: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/links/alternativehealing products.htm
    GET /links/alternativehealingproducts.htm HTTP/1.1
    Connection: Keep-Alive
    Keep-Alive: 300
    Accept:*/*
    Host: www.ultimatewatermassage.com
    Accept-Language: en-us
    Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
    User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0b; Windows NT 6.0)

   Server Response: 200 OK
    Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:47:05 GMT
    Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
    MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
    X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
    Content-Length: 17911
    Content-Type: text/html
    Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDSQRBRTRR=OINBMJPAKGNOEGALDNAOIPAA; path=/
    Cache-control: private

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A REDIRECT WORKING
from non-www. to www
 
URL=http://ultimatewatermassage.com/links/alternativehealing products.htm
Result code: 301 (MovedPermanently / Moved Permanently)
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:52:45 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Location: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/links/alternativehealing products.htm
Content-Length: 17911
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDSQRBRTRR=KKNBMJPANOAMBNPNJJKMELHN; path=/
Cache-Control: private
New location: http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/links/alternativehealing products.htm

URL= http://www.ultimatewatermassage.com/links/alternativehealing products.htm
Result code: 200 (OK / OK)
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:52:45 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Content-Length: 17911
Content-Type: text/html
Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDSQRBRTRR=LKNBMJPAPLEMPPOMEOOMAPEN; path=/
Cache-Control: private