The online world is at war for decades with its excruciating, neverending battles where the winner’s flag waves for a week, a day or even a few minutes. Outsiders might picture people swinging at each other with keyboards or strangling maneuvers with mouse cables, but us that are participants of this combat know exactly what it’s all about.
Combat of the SEO spots of course! SEO is one of the crucial parts of online success which is why it’s so hard to rank on the top of search engine results, not to mention on position zero (the first Google search result that pops up above the first ranking SEO result).
Your precious SEO spot was earned through hard work and hours of analyzing and adjusting so it’s clear that you don’t want to share it, or God forbid, resign it.
But, if you are about to redirect, there are a few burning questions on your mind and you need the answers ASAP!
The moment you started reading this article, I’ve implemented my mind reading technique to scan the questions and bring you the answers about redirects and their correlation with SEO, so let’s get started:
Also read 13 Local SEO Optimization Tricks This 2020 – A Definitive Guide
1. What is a redirection exactly and when should I use it?
First, let’s get familiar with the redirection process. Redirects are used when you want to temporarily or permanently switch to another URL or domain.
You landed a sponsorship deal, you want a new fresh start or you have an unsolvable problem on your current website?
That’s where the redirection comes in as an ideal solution. If you decide to change your URL or domain for any reason, but exclude the redirects part, any old users that types in your URL will be flashed with a “404 page not found” error.
They will jump to a conclusion that your website has been shut down rather than just relocated to a different place.
Instead, if you implement the redirection plugin, the moment they enter the URL into the address bar, they will automatically be redirected to your new, freshly constructed website.
2. I want to temporarily/permanently move a website. Which redirect should I use?
If you want to permanently move a website, 301 Redirects by WebFactory is the tool you want to reach out for and you can get your hands on it by clicking here.
This plugin allows you to redirect from your old website to the new one, optimizes both the link and the search engine results, passes up to 99% link authority, autocorrect typing errors in URLs and much more.
On the other hand, if you want to temporarily move to a new location, 302 Redirects is what you’re looking for.
If you are testing a new plugin or a theme, fixing a bug, or making some updates on changes, you don’t want your users to observe the dirty work being done. Instead, you redirect to a different place for you to complete your tests, upgrades, debugs or whatever required a brief redirection, clean up and guide them back to the original website.
3. Will redirects compromise the SEO?
Redirecting will not affect the SEO in any negative way.
When you perform it, everything gets passed on to the new page, including SEO, page ranking, page authority, and traffic.
But to keep everything in order and running smoothly and properly, you need to use redirects accordingly. As we stated beforehand, when you want a permanent relocation, you need to use 301 Redirects.
By completing the procedure, Google will recognize that you’ve chosen a new place to hang out and it will remove the old page from its index so it can be transferred to a new one.
On the other hand, when using 302 Redirects, the link equity isn’t transferred to the new page since Google expects you to return to your previous location.
In that scenario, if you use 302 Redirects for an everlasting migration, you will get in a lot of trouble by losing the value which is why it’s extremely important to use the adequate redirection service.
4. What are redirect chains and are they an issue?
A redirect chain is an occurrence where you redirect your page to a new one…and then redirecting it once again. To put it into a more illustrative perspective:
page 1 → page 2 → page 3.
If you find yourself in a situation where you want/need to redirect from your original website twice, there are a few things that you should bear in mind because multiple redirections aren’t advisable.
By doing so, your load time will be slower, your overall website speed will decrease and your page authority might see a drop, and all of those things are something we want to stay away from as far as possible.
Luckily, there is an easy solution to this problem by doing a double redirection going from the first website to the third, and from the second website to the third, or simply put:
page 1 → page 3
page 2 → page 3
With that easy, clever procedure, you shut down every mentioned problem.
5. What is a redirect loop and how to fix it?
When you type in a URL, your browser does the simple task of taking you to do your desired location. But in some cases, your browser goes there and gets told that it should redirect to a different place.
So naturally, it follows the instructions and goes to the new location, but there it is told to go back to the previous one.
This process gets repeated until it figures that it’s impossible to reach the sought location, and therefore it displays an error saying “ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS”.
That can happen for multiple reasons, such as a faulty redirect or a faulty plugin, but there are a few easy fixes that will most likely resolve the problem, such as:
- Checking if your redirects are done properly
- Cleaning the cache
- Cleaning your website’s cookies
- Disabling your plugins and enabling them one by one
Ultimately, loops shouldn’t be a big of an issue if you discover them and resolve them in time.
Redirects can be extremely useful and solve multiple problems if you use them correctly.
It’s a simple process that won’t take away a lot of your time and energy and you will undoubtedly benefit from it by guiding your users to your new, upgraded, better looking and better running website.
There might be some turbulence in your journey, but if you use the fitting tools and proper solutions, you will be unstoppable in reaching your goals, getting more organic traffic and upgrade your SEO game easier than ever!
