Things change at a certain point in the future when you work on a website regardless of what kind of website you are working on.
A few pages are eliminated. The appearance of the site might transform. Maybe a new and better domain name has been bought.
There are several reasons why the website that you are working on will change in the future.
It is very important to consider your redirect plan before any changes happen. It can be quite nuanced and you don’t want someone with slight knowledge doing something daft.
You can lose ranks with botched redirect plans. And ultimately you will lose traffic to the website. Which will result in loss of revenue or business. Your Years of SEO work will be ruined with poorly thought out redirect plans.
Nobody sets out to lose money. At least not anyone I know.
In this article, you will get to know what redirects and their functions, ways to apply them, and finally how to implement them.
What are redirects?
Redirects also known as redirections can be either client-side or server-side. We use them when we want to send or redirect a user or bot search engine from one URL to another.
There might be numerous explanations for this, but the most popular are:
- To move a website from one domain to another
- To redirect traffic while you carry out vital server outlay
- To combine copied or unnecessary content
- To direct traffic from an old edition of content to the fresh
Quite simple, right? But few things that you need to take into deliberation when applying redirects – whether that be from the viewpoint of the user, or the search engine.
When and why are redirects used?
There’s a huge spectrum when it comes to using redirects and experience plays an important role. So to keep it modest, see the two polar ends of that spectrum.
Let’s crack this down into two columns. There are page-level redirects and website-level redirects.
Page-level redirects
What do you understand about page-level redirects? It is simple and easily understandable. Page-level redirects come into play when you have particular pages or a set of particular pages that need to be redirected because you’re not redirecting every page on the website.
Here are a few illustrations.
Redirecting expired products
You know that products come and go when you run an eCommerce store. Some of them will be linked externally, and some of them may rank well and be producing traffic. It could be a while before Google picks up that the content has taken off.
When you redirect expired products to the new, make sure that you direct the user to something they may be interested in, even if you don’t have the original product they are looking for.
Merging old content for improved SEO
Many websites have the same or similar content on multiple pages and it is easy because it is hard to remember everything that website contains.
But this can also result in problems with plagiarized content. It’s also bad from a UX viewpoint.
So what to do in that case?
Incorporate the content from both pages onto one page and one URL. The final page is then redirected to the new and better page.
Website level redirects
The next type of redirect is website-level redirects. With website-level redirects, you redirect all pages from one URL to another and involve every page as part of the redirect plan.
Merging two websites
It helps you when you’ve bought an expired domain or maybe your customer has various sites all selling the same kind of commodities. Be it any reason, there may be a time when you will have to merge two or more websites.
That’s where redirects save you.
Ideally, you have to merge the weaker domains with the stronger but this does not always happen. It’s been common for site holders to buy other domains and move that content into other domains for several years. That needs some adequate planning and enactment to get right.
Why are redirects important for SEO?
Let’s discuss the reasons why redirects are important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
They enable maintenance link equity
We know how important links are, right? With time we venture into link-building campaigns. We may also pick up natural links as well. They can be pointing at any page on your website and not just go to your home page. Equity that was being passed on vanishes when you delete any page.
Redirects – precisely 301 redirects – aid to maintain as much of that link equity as feasible and help users engage.
But this is usability rather than SEO and this becomes a problem. But user experience matters a lot in SEO. You only have to check the mammoth 150+ page Quality Raters guidelines to see how critical usability is for SEO. A poor user experience is bad for your business, and bad for your SEO.
What are the common types of redirects?
Below are some most commonly used redirects. Let’s take a look at them.
HTML redirects
301 redirects are also known as permanent redirects. 301s come into play when you want to forward one URL to another with the motive of not changing that in the future. This could result from a domain migration, or from creating a site safe.
301 redirects pass around 100% of the link equity from the old URL to the new URL. But the new URL must be very similar or equivalent to the old URL.
302 redirect is temporary. 302 redirects are used when you want to create a redirect but you are thinking of making changes or reversing it in the future.
If you think 302s are unable to pass page rank then you are wrong. 302s do indeed pass the page rank.
307 redirect is also another temporary redirect – but it’s not as popular as 302 redirects.
For properly utilizing redirects you must take help from an expert. GlobalHunt Technologies provides you with experienced and skilled experts who will help you utilize the redirects and avoid any kind of disturbance on your website. Visit GlobalHunt Technologies now and start getting benefits from redirects.
Also Read: Why Should You Use An Emergency Cash Advance.
