Member Avatar for jkon

First of all if anyone knows where I can go to ask a question about Google policies and get a legitimate answer please share with me ( where exactly … the URL). My question seems simple. I am planning to create a URL shortener service. Anyone can enter a search term and search modification (e.g. the language) and a URL of a sub domain will be created redirecting request to that Google search. Has anyone any idea if this is fine with Google or it might have bad impact on the main site?

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Dani AI

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Short answer: that idea is risky. Google’s spam guidance calls out “doorway abuse” and deceptive redirects—creating large numbers of tiny subdomains that merely funnel users (or search engines) to the same destination is exactly the pattern they flag and can trigger manual or algorithmic action. (developers.google.com)

Practical implementation notes (if you still want to prototype): serve a proper server-side redirect (301 or 302 as appropriate) rather than client-side tricks, and avoid creating indexable, crawlable short‑URL pages at scale. If a short URL must exist, make it non-discoverable (don’t put it in sitemaps or internal links) and prevent indexing with a crawlable noindex (meta robots or X‑Robots‑Tag) — but don’t block the URL with robots.txt, because Google must be able to fetch the page to see a noindex. Use curl and the URL Inspection tool to confirm what Googlebot actually sees. (developers.google.com)

Do not programmatically scrape Google Search results — heavy automated queries will trigger “unusual traffic” protections (CAPTCHAs, blocks) and can violate Google's acceptable use; for legitimate programmatic access use Google’s supported Programmable Search / Custom Search JSON API instead. That API is the sanctioned way to retrieve search results programmatically. ()

Checklist before launch: (1) re-read Google’s spam policies and redirects docs; (2) make short URLs non-indexable and unlinked; (3) limit discoverability and whitelist destinations to avoid open‑redirect abuse; (4) start small, monitor Search Console (Manual actions / Coverage / Removals), and be ready to remove or change the feature if Google flags it. and were right to point toward official channels — the linked Search Central pages above are the authoritative references. (developers.google.com)

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Member Avatar for Dani

Hi,

I've had good success in the official Google Groups forums. You can of course also email support ad adsense-support@google.com, adwords-support, etc. If you have a Webmaster Tools account, you can contact them through there.

Unfortunately, I don't think that they will offer an answer to this particular question of yours. You'd most likely just get a form letter back with a link to their 1000 page terms of service.

What type of impact are you afraid of? Duplicate content?

Member Avatar for jkon

I am not sure how they are working these days … and I am not sure that if I redirect searched to them they could punish the main site for that …. I am going to try it … it is an idea that deserves the trouble … (dani beautiful and helpful as always...thanks)

Member Avatar for ankitaray

you have a Webmaster Tools account, you can contact them through there.

Unfortunately, I don't think that they will offer an answer to this particular question of yours. You'd most likely just get a form letter back with a link to their 1000 page terms of service

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