How much do inner 301-redirects hurt you?

This isn't directly related to VBSEO, but it's very similar to what it does, extrapolated one step further. It's also on a forum with vbseo installed ;P

There are some websites out there that 301 redirect their homepage to an inner page, either permanently or temporarily. For instance, www.widgetforum.com may redirect towww.widgetforum.com/forum.

I'd imagine this is done to leave open the possibility of adding a static homepage down the line without breaking all the URLs. But how much more difficult does that actually make ranking the page? If you're sending all your SEO at widgetforum.com (which is then redirecting to widgetforum.com/forum), how much more difficult is that to rank than if you just had the site on widgetforum.com without any redirects?

I'm in a similar situation in that I'm looking to launch a new site that will primarily be a forum, but needs to be left open for static content down the line. It would be setup as such.

HomePages - Buying a Home, Selling a Home and Loans at HomePages.com -----301-----> www.homepage.com/forum
www.homepage.com/section-1 -----301-----> www.homepage.com/forum/section-1
www.homepage.com/section-2 -----301-----> www.homepage.com/forum/section-2
www.homepage.com/section-1/showthread183 -----301-----> www.homepage.com/forum/section-1/showthread183
etc

The backlinking would be done to the sections without the /forum in the URL, so how much harder is that redirect going to be to rank?

I know I know, sounds like a good test. That's usually the approach I'd take to it, but unfortunately with this niche there's no time for that. I'm trying to weigh if it's worth it to redirect everything to the /forum directory and leave things open for a static homepage, or if that's going to effect SEO enough that I should just put the forum on the main domain and forget about leaving that option open.

I realize this isn't a quantifiable thing, so I'm just looking for something general here if anyone has any experience with this. When you 301 a domain to a new domain you never get back all that link juice, but what if you're just 301'ing within the same domain and you have the 301 set up from the get-go? Isn't this similar to what VBSeo does without any negative affects?

In my opinion, redirecting the homepage is a huge mistake and should be avoided at all costs. It's just as bad, if not worse, than a landing or splash page. If you have nothing to put there now, you shouldn't be open at all. If you have nothing to put there ever, why did you install in a folder/ in the first place?

If you're planning to use the vbCMS, install in root, and your CMS can function there later... but for now, set it to run your forum home from /.


Just remember, it's always easeir to move down than it is to move up the folder strucutre, as htaccess only effects it and sub- folders, not ones above it.