Have you seen websites that redirect you to a different page that you were not looking for? Otherwise, you get a “sorry, not available” message. This doesn’t only happen to you, it commonly occurs to everyone. URL errors, which are unwanted, are more common than you thought. Fortunately, there are best SEO practices you can utilize for URL redirects, which allow you to combat those frustrating errors.
In this blog, I’ll make you clear about what redirects are, why they are important, the most common types of redirects, the impact of redirects on SEO, and the best practices of URLs for using them. It’s important to understand how and when to use redirects properly and how the client will improve the user experience and help the website achieve higher rankings from an SEO perspective.
URL Redirect :
This is the technique used for forwarding users from an old, or possibly no longer existing, URL to another URL that is already active and working properly.
Redirects are used mainly for forwarding traffic temporarily during server maintenance, for website relocation to a new domain, merging duplicate content, and relocating website visitors from the old content to new content. There are various types of redirect codes, so it’s extremely important to know the differences between each type and when and how to use them.
Types of URL Redirects :
There are various types of URL redirects that you can easily use. In this case, I’ll be mainly focusing on commonly used redirects. They are 301, 302, 307, and 308 (rarely used). Whereas 404 is not common enough for making use of it often as the best practice section. When a redirect is used most commonly, it sounds similar at first glance. These unique redirect codes will be quite meaningful for SEOs and need to be used very properly. While choosing the correct redirect codes to use, you have to narrow down which type will be more effectively used for your specific goal of yours.
1. 301 URL redirects :
It is mainly used when the page is deleted permanently or removed from the website. It is the most common and cleanest use of redirect code. For preserving traffic, ranking, and getting backlinks, the 301 code is used mainly.
The 301 redirects will get indexed eventually by the search engines, which will include its new content, and this is considered the most efficient and search engine-friendly method used for page redirection. In fact, if you correct it, it will be beneficial since the new page will have the same page authority as the original.
When using 301 URL redirects :
- Fixing broken backlinks
- Resolving the duplicate content.
- I’m merging two websites and want to redirect users to correct the page.
- Creating a new subdomain
- Choosing the correct canonical URL
2. 307 Redirect URL
307 URL redirects, also called HTTP 307 temporary redirects, are pretty much the same as the 302 redirect code. Both 302 and 307 are temporarily used for similar purposes. Still, 307 codes are a server-side redirect specifically used for HTTP. This method is used to make sure the HTTP request doesn’t change while the server responds with a redirect. This 307 redirect has the greatest impact on SEO.
Instead of using the 307 code, we can also use the 302 redirect code.
URL redirects impact on SEO
Google has a positive idea about the redirect. Last year’s SEO was overly concerned with numerous website redirects, which resulted in a drop in search engine rankings. But now that Google has confirmed that 301, 302, and 307 redirects were used correctly, it will not harm SEO. On the other hand, redirects can also help in transferring the domains smoothly and updating permalink structures.
Google also explains that “301 and 302 redirects will not be responsible for the loss of PageRank”. This means that using 301 URL redirects is not a problem and that search engines pass authority along the page from the original URL to the new URL without interfering with SEO.
While executing this well, redirects will not at all harm your SEO rankings. If it is poorly executed, redirects will lower your SEO rankings. So it is very important to know which redirect is correct for the website. This way, you can avoid the negative impact on your site performance.
Domain Redirects
While the website is being migrated, the best way to redirect the domain should be with a 301 redirect code to the primary domain. This method is mainly used when a 301 redirect is permanent. It is best to point a 301 redirect code from each domain with www or non-www, HTTP, and HTTPS. Google will appreciate it if the main domain is HTTPS. Once it gets redirected, you have to always remember to check if any new domain has been indexed. Google’s URL inspection tool can also be used for checking the Domain Redirects.
Best practices for URL redirects :
There are six major practices that should be followed by URL redirects. The following tips should be followed if there is any problem with redirects. We must always keep in mind that we must use the proper URL redirection methods.
The majority of relevant and related pages should be redirected here :
SEO is the best practice for URL redirects. Try redirecting to the most relevant and similar pages. Redirecting a page that has a completely different intent than the original is always considered a bad practice and this should be avoided at any cost.
Avoid using redirect chains :
This redirected chain is the most common mistake, and it is very important to avoid it. Users should not have to see any jumps in chain redirects, but Google notices these things. A good tool to spot these redirect chains is Screaming Frog. After 5 redirects, Google will automatically stop crawling, resulting in stopping showing the new URL.
Internal links are being updated :
You have to ensure that the internal links have always been updated. The best practice of internal links will be seen if it is very accurate. If it is not accurate, then it will result in slowing down a website significantly. It is very important to keep a minimum of redirects as much as possible on the website. Redirects should have been given priority for cleaning up to preserve the SEO authority and to reduce the impact on Googlebot crawling. Because we don’t know when the old redirects will cause unsolvable behavior within a website.
The Meta Refresher tag should have to be avoided :
Meta refresher tags should be avoided at all costs. This usually has a message on a page counting down in seconds, which usually says, “If you are not redirected in 10 seconds, click here.” and you have to load another URL. This technique is not only spammy, but it also redirects users to a page with content that differs from what they were looking for. This type of redirect always has a bad user experience and should not be recommended for SEO.
Soft 404 should be avoided :
Google will treat this redirect as an irrelevant page and will avoid the soft 404 URL. This means that Google may ignore the redirect and not pass the page authority.
Use 404s sparingly if you want to get creative :
It will ok if this will occasionally have 404s. Sometimes it will be necessary to leave 404 pages mostly while there is no equivalent page on the new site. Rather we can create a new 404 page with the contact information or with helpful links that can provide value to the user. This technique will guide the user by giving the idea about which they were planning for and keeping them on their site.
Therefore, we have to always remember that consistency is the key! While it is time-consuming to properly implement URL redirects, especially when you will be having thousands of redirects within your website, there will be no worth for that in the long-term process, so take your time for doing that correctly. If you do it perfectly for the first time that it will help in preventing future trouble occurred on the website.
Now it is clearly understood that using each type of URL redirects suits best the situation and follows the best practices which is mentioned above. Always you have to check whether all of your pages are redirecting to the correct URL.