Ultimate Guide of Redirections in SEO

In the online world, redirects are very common. If you have been in this genre for quite a long time, you would know that redirects play an important role. However, it is essential for you to understand more about this specific feature. So this guide is wholly devoted to redirections and understanding in detail about it.

What redirects, actually?

Redirects are an aspect of online websites that owners generally use to send their customers or users from one website page to another. To be more straightforward, it sends users from one URL to another.

Users generally click on the first URL, type in their requirements, or are requested. The second one is a new destination that the website owner would like their users to visit.

Irrespective of the search engine you're working into, redirects work in a similar way. Its prime attribute is to send from one to another particular URL.

Most of the time, the website owners would set the page redirects that have duplicated content, broken links, or moved to another new page or website. This is a valuable way for both search engines and users to get access to current and relevant pages.

It is mainly chosen as it improves user experience and helps to stay away from different kinds of SEO issues. They are certainly a great way to improve your rank. However, before that, let's understand and learn in detail about the importance of redirects.

What is the importance of redirects?

There are several reasons why redirects are essential.

● It dramatically helps a website to move its authority when the page has been moved with the backlinks.

● It helps to send traffic to the new URL and not the old URL that does not have any existence.

● It improves the overall user experience by making sure that visitors will not have to experience duplicated content or broken links.

When you don't implement redirects, you will soon experience that you will lose the search engine ranking. It will also end up increasing unhappy customers.

For example, if you have deleted or moved the page and have yet to use a redirect in place, users will mostly receive 404 error responses. This will irritate your user and will result in a poor user experience.

It will show a 404 error message on the whole page. This is definitely not a great habit as it impacts the user experience. It will result in users leaving your website forever.

With proper redirects, you can prevent 404 errors and help users to get what they were searching for. Are you thinking about what will happen to all the bank links that are pointing to the old page with a 404 error currently and which have been moved?

This is definitely a big problem. You will not be able to get any authority from the bank links. An official at Google has confirmed this.

When should you use redirects?

Following are some of the list of common reasons to use redirects

● When you have deleted the page

● When you have planned to move the webpage URL to another URL.

● When you plan to add category tags, that can affect URLs.

● When you are performing webpage maintenance.

● When you move the entire website to another domain.

● When You Merge duplicate web pages.

● When you choose to migrate your site from HTTP to HTTPS

It is up to you whether you want to apply a redirect on a group of URLs or a single URL. It is also possible to redirect a complete domain to another new domain name.

You might require using different kinds of redirects based on the situation.

What are the different types of redirects?

In common, there are two significant categories of redirects which include temporary and permanent. Most commonly, users will not be able to experience the difference between the two types, but it is definitely essential for search engines.

Permanent redirects are those which are only used by the website owner who would not like to display their old page again. It will look like you have deleted a page or you have combined the duplicated page.

It will give information to the search engine that it is entirely okay to get rid of the old URL from their search engine results and only show the current one. Next, you have temporary redirects which are only used when you want to redirect any page for a short interval.

Just like you are performing any website maintenance, temporary redirects can be essential as they will provide your users a message that they can come back after the maintenance is over. Temporary redirects help search engines to understand that they need to keep old URLs, unlike permanent redirects.

Temporary redirects are a signal that the old URL will be the primary source of information in the future. As it provides signals to the search engine, it is essential for you to select the correct type of URL so that it helps search engines to take the right next step.

HTTP Redirects.

This is how the HTTP redirects generally work.

The browser of users requests an old URL. Then the server will display their webpage from another new URL. From the point of view of users, it is a seamless process.

However, when it comes to technical terms, these are known as server-side redirects. This is because the web server where the website has been hosted will initially take care of the website before it even loads.

This is generally done by responding to the 3XX HTTP code after receiving a request from a redirected URL. These codes provide instructions to the browser. It indicates that the requested URL has adequately been redirected and that users can find a new webpage.

Here is a list of some of the most common types of codes.

302 – redirected temporarily

303 – redirected temporarily

307 – redirected temporarily

301 – moved permanently

308 – redirected permanently

302 redirects:

This is a very common redirect, as 302 tells the search engine that the website is temporarily redirected. Even when it is a temporary redirect, it can pass the page authority from the old page to the new one.

● 302 redirect is generally used when the page is under maintenance, you are temporarily moving the page to another new URL, or you want to take an A/B test on the website design.

● 301. Redirect is generally used when the website is permanently moved. It provides a signal to the search engine that the move they are making is permanent. It is also considered one of the best ways to pass on the link equity when you require redirecting to a page.

It can be beneficial to pass page authority from old to new eval. However, you have to bear in mind that the 301 redirect diminishes page authority, so you can only use them when it is required.

Other HTTP redirects:

● 303 Redirect: These redirects end users to relevant pages when the old one is unavailable.

● 307 Redirect: This redirect is almost similar to the 302 redirects, but it will directly send server requests for the web page.

● 308 Redirect: It is an indication of a permanent move and can be treated similarly to 301 redirects.

JavaScript redirects

The JavaScript redirect generally happens from the client side instead of the server side. Similar to meta refresh redirect, it is also not recommended by search engines for optimization. The reason is that Google might not index the page properly when using JavaScript.

It can hurt the website's ranking. There are many assessments made that show that Google generally treats this redirect similarly to 301. However, it is not guaranteed that it will push the page authority.

Meta refresh redirects

Meta refresh generally happens at the page level instead of the server level. This means that it occurs in the browser instead of the server, unlike HTTP redirects.

However, Meta refresh can be confusing for websites, visitors, and Google. They are generally slower and can lead to indexing a wrong page by the search engine. It can also hurt user experience.

Google generally recommends metal refresh redirects when You're not able to use server-side redirects. This is because they will not pass link equity. Additionally, it is very slow, which will have an impact on SEO.

There are two different types of meta redirects

● Instant meta-refresh redirects generally trigger when the page is loaded in the browser.

● Delayed meta refresh redirects trigger after a few seconds. It shows that these are temporary redirects to Google.

Best practices for redirects:

Now that you have covered some detail about the different types of redirects and their importance let us know the best practices that you should follow.

● Avoid redirect loops and chains.

The redirect chain is mostly when there are several URL redirects between the final and original URLs. You must know that Google can easily follow up to 10 redirect links without facing any issues. However, you have to be sure not to make things complicated.

Redirect chains can result in a delay to crawl, which can cause Link equity loss and increase page load time. This can be frustrating for your users and can hamper optimization. In order to fix the issue, it is recommended to straight redirect from URL A to C without Stopping in B.

● Make sure to redirect to the close-match content.

While setting a redirect, it is essential for you to ensure that the content of the new page closely matches the content of the old page. For example, when you redirect the expired page to the specially created page rather than the homepage, it makes more sense.

If you are not redirecting the old URL to a relevant URL, the search engine will not pass the old page authority. This can cause a soft 404. Technically it is not a status code. It is more like a label used by Google.

● Do not link which pages that is already redirected to a new page:

When you are directing an old page to a new one, there might be other pages on the site that are redirecting to the old page. When your users move to the old link and then get redirected to the new URL, it can be time taking.

Even when users will not be able to notice it, it can become an additional redirect which will result in the redirect chain. In case you don't maintain it. So, it is always recommended to redirect to the new page. Instead of creating a loop from the old to the new page, direct redirects are faster and better.

● Fix 404 error to get link Authority

Google mostly ignores the bank links that are pointed toward 404 pages. This is a problem as bank links are known to be a popular ranking factor. Therefore, you will not get any credit for those bank links that point toward 404 pages.

The first thing that you should do is fix the error in order to get link authority.

Bottom line:

These are some of the most essential pieces of information that you must know about SEO redirects. As there is a range of types of redirects, it is mandatory for you to choose according to the requirement. Otherwise, it will all go in vain. Since it is not easy for any newcomer to analyze everything about SEO website redirects, it is better that you hire an expert.

There is a need to understand in detail the different types of redirects. As mentioned above, meta redirects SEO has various benefits over 301 redirects. Similarly, all the different types of redirects have other impacts on your website. If you are looking forward to finding an expert who understands redirects and SEO, you can choose Digital Habibi.

Being a part of this genre for quite a long time now, I can tell you about the correct redirect for your requirements. Besides, as it has multiple impacts on the website's SEO, I can make sure that I choose the appropriate SEO website redirect to leverage the ultimate benefits.

Frequently asked questions

How do redirects have an impact on page authority?

If you already have good page authority, you must be thinking about whether redirects will pass the link authority or not. Well, the answer is yes. When you choose 301 redirects, it will help you to pass the authority from the old page to the current page. However, you have to make sure that the page content of the new page is similar to the old one.

You should also know that redirects do not necessarily pass total page authority from your original website.

Is it an excellent choice to choose redirects for SEO?

The answer is no. However, answering the question can be challenging.

We Will always recommend you avoid the net for the entire redirect. This way, you will retain all page authority. However, at some point in time, you might require redirecting some pages due to website maintenance or any other reason, so it is better that you choose the correct redirect type.

Does redirecting a URL affect SEO?

Yes, it definitely has. However, we can say that it is okay for SEO. Just like so many things in the online world, when you know how to use it correctly, it will have a positive impact. Improper implementation will result in trouble and losing your traffic And page rank.

Is there a way to test redirects?

Yes, testing is very simple. You have to copy the URL of your old website and paste it into the browser that you're using. If you find that it directly brings you to the new URL after hitting enter, your redirect is thoroughly working. If not, You might require setting it up properly.

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