URL Redirects best practices

Best Practices for website migrations and content restructuring

 

 

Note: This guide is focused on Google results, but the same principles apply to other search engines.

 

Definitions

Status Code	Purpose
Http/301	URL permanently moved to a new destination
Http/302	URL temporarily moved to a new destination
Http/404	URL not found

Purpose of Redirects

When content is relocated from one domain to another or restructuring is performed where important content is consolidated or moved to a different URL, redirects must be configured to avoid Http/404 Not Found statuses.

Failing to set up redirects will result in a loss of page rank on search engines. Incorrectly configuring redirects can also result in a loss of page rank or result in an inconsistent visitor experience.

Permanent vs. Temporary Redirects

Http/301 is recommended when restructuring or moving content permanently, Http/302 is ONLY recommended if the relocation is truly temporary, redirecting to an “offline” or “under construction” page for instance.

SEO Impact

A list of all indexed pages can be found by visiting Google Search Console -> Coverage and exporting the list of Valid and Error URLs for the original website prior to restructuring or relocating content.

 

No Redirect

Any page that is not redirected to the new location will produce an Http/404 error and will eventually show in the list of Error URLs on Google Search Console. Content that results in an Http/404 will be penalized on Page Rank over time.

Ensure any URLs that were previously indexed are either redirected to a new location or removed from the index by requesting removal from Google Search Console.

Circular Redirect

Redirecting a URL back to itself will result in a circular redirect, the browser will produce a “Too Many Redirects” error. This condition will result in a Page Rank penalty and should be avoided.

Redirection Chains

Redirection Chains occur when a visitor is redirected from one URL to another, but the destination URL, in turn, redirects the visitor to yet another URL. 

Too many redirects could result in a “Too Many Redirects” error or cause poor user experience due to the slow nature of Http requests. Each additional page load decreases user experience.

This will result in a Page Rank penalty and a Page Speed penalty.

If a redirect is necessary, redirect once to the correct location.

Sitemaps

Any URL that is being redirected from should be removed from your website’s sitemap and a new sitemap should be submitted to search engines. The sitemap should only contain URLs that are currently being served and not any removed (Http/404) or redirected URLs (Http/301)

Catch-All Redirects

Avoid setting up “catch-all” redirects. The destination for a redirect should have a clear relation to the original URL and should represent the content of a similar nature. Redirecting all URLs to the home page will create a poor user experience and may result in Page Rank penalties once reindexed when the original keywords for the source URL are no longer present on the home page.

Also avoid redirecting all Http/404 (not found) errors to a content page. Http/404’s are an expected condition on websites and the user should be presented with an appropriate error page and not a content page unrelated to the page they attempted to visit.

Visitor Impact

Page redirects should be carefully planned. Visitors expect to find the content they searched for or were linked to. Redirecting to generic pages will result in a poor user experience and higher bounce rates.

An example of this would be a product page that no longer exists redirecting to the home page or contact us page. A better solution is to redirect to the product that replaced that product, redirect to your combined products page, a page dedicated to announcing the discontinuation of that product or finally let a Http/404 occur but ensure the dead link is removed from your site map and the search index by processing a removal request.

Monitoring

Monitoring for new errors in your website’s Google Search Index is crucial for two to three weeks following a large-scale restructure or content relocation. Ensure any issues are promptly addressed to avoid impact on Page Rank.

Continued monitoring is recommended to ensure long-term search result integrity.