Newbies in the field of SEO may be afraid to do the redirection of links for the experts it is a simple technique to get a better ranking. In this post, I will be sharing how redirecting links can be good or bad for SEO.
If you were not knowing about the redirection of the links then this post is for you.
What is Redirection?
It is the process of redirecting or forwarding one URL to a different URL. We are going to learn about the three most important types of redirects 301, 302, and Meta Fresh.
What are these redirections for?
- 301, “The link is moved or forwarded to another URL permanently”—and is considered the best practice for SEO.
- 302, “It is a temporary kind of redirect- The redirection is done for a small period of time.”
- Meta Refresh
Deep Explanation for Redirection:
Redirection is a way to send the user and search engines to different URLs. Instead of visiting the same Url, the users and the search engines are redirected to the other URL that the owner of the website wants. Below you can check the detailed explanation of some important redirecting links.
301 Redirection or we can say “Moved Permanently.”
The 301 redirect is the redirection that is responsible for passing the link juice from 90-99% to the redirected pages. In short 301 redirects can power your ranking smoothly. This is the best method proven for redirecting links. This redirect can be from HTTP to HTTPS or to an entirely different URL.
302 redirect, or we can say “Moved Temporarily.”
Many of Google’s spokesperson says that Google treats 301 redirects and 302 redirects as similar in some cases. But many webmasters and Even Google claim that all search engines like the 301 redirect more than 302. There are two versions of HTTP which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol which helps us and the search engines to know which kind of link it is like it is 1.0 or 1.1. So, with the 302 redirect which means the Url is moved temporarily, and which is 1.1 which means found. However, the use of the 302 redirects for a long time could end up with some problems or a decrease in organic traffic.
307 Moved Temporarily (HTTP 1.1 Only)
The 307 redirect is similar to the 302 redirect. There may be many Google algorithms, or we can say it is crawled as 302 by most of the search engines. The 307 redirects will work better but if you are looking for a good temporary redirect then I will recommend the 302 redirects.
Meta Refresh
Meta refresh is a type of redirect that I will not recommend for good SEO. This type of refresh is done on the Page or Post level instead of the Server. The Meta refresh countdown lasts for only five to ten seconds. They do pass link juice, but those links pass no value for long-term SEO.
Why redirecting links is good for SEO?
As I mentioned earlier the links that move permanently from one URL to another are considered good Practices of SEO. Usually, the 301 redirect is the best redirect for your website. If you are redirecting one domain to another, you should use 301 redirects, and even changing the URLs of one website from HTTP to HTTPS will be considered good.
Why does redirecting links if not done properly ruin our website?
As the title, I have taken says that the redirection of the links is good or bad for SEO. So, I will say that if the links are not redirected properly or the wrong techniques are used then your website, or blog can be in danger. You would have heard about the term canonicalization, if not I will recommend you to read the post followed by the link. Google will consider the content to be duplicate content as thinking of two different websites with the same content. And even in some cases, your links will be broken but you can use the Broken link checker on the WordPress Plugin to know about it if the redirection is not done perfectly.
Should we move from HTTP to HTTPS?
Yes, we should move from HTTP to HTTPS because Google has taken some security measures and will rank those websites that are more secure. So, you should go for an SSL certificate for your Website or blog. There is also a way that you can get an SSL certificate free using Cloud Flare.
How To Redirect Links?
I think that this is the most important question after all things. If you are using WordPress then I can share some of the Plugins for redirecting the URL there are two plugins named Really Simple SSL and WordPress HTTPS.
And if you are not using WordPress then you should go for editing your .htacess file. You just have to put this code for redirecting your whole website.
“RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L]”
And if you want to redirect only a single page then here is the code for the same.
“RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^apache-redirect-http-to-https\.html$ https://www.yoursite.com/apache-redirect-http-to-https.html [R=301,L]”
Finally, What do I want to say?
Whenever some newbies or bloggers ask me about redirection, then I tell them redirection is good but only if done in the right way. Moving a website from HTTP to HTTPS enhances the quality of the links of that website, and we get better results on Google SERPs.
Also if you have any questions or queries related to the redirection of the links, please feel free to ask. Our team will be happy to help you.
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Such great! & an informative article amazing post and great content. Thanks for sharing this article.Thanks Again!!
Very useful and detailed information, redirection is a new technique for me I learnt few things from your article. would like to explore the option and follow as you mentioned hope it works.
It is a knowledgeable article for me, I hope you will share a more useful article like this. Keep it up!
I found a great post such as your article, it gave me a lot of information.
Very Nice Post, I learned a lot through it. Thanks for posting.
Thank you Robin for sharing this impressive blog. Really glad to read this article. This site has lots of information and useful for us.
Fantastic post and so much to learn. It’s really amazing! I think there was something from each post that deeply impressed me.
301 Redirect is help to move new url without loosing our previous traffic or baclinks.
Thanks for sharing this informative post.
great post robin…i agree to move from http to https to have more security and protect our website from hackers….search engines are ranking https website higher compared to http ..!!
Thank you so much for sharing such subject
Hey Robin! I have a question for you. Like have just upgraded my website and have although redirected previous url’s but the google is still showing my old pages. How can I get rid of that buddy?
Hi Narissa,
It looks like that you have not resubmitted your website to the Google webmaster tools or the redirection is not done properly. Try first the google webmaster tools first.
if you still have any problem, feel free to ask.
Regards,
Robin Khokhar
According to Matt Cuts, links passed from one domain to another using a 301 permanent redirection is no loss of link juice. I use 301 redirections for forwarding domains with backlinks too.
Hi Nikhil,
That’s why 301 redirection is the best and used mostly.
Thanks for this post. However, what is your take on URL shortener redirection?
Hi Steven,
I will consider the Url shortener redirection not to be a good SEO practice.