Redirects for SEOs

Traduction francaise: Redirections en OMR

URL redirection is a handy technique for SEOs to refer to new pages or changed domains. For SEO purposes, it’s important to use the proper redirect to keep the link juice flowing.

Why redirect a web page?

-    Similar domain names – incorrectly spelled domains, like google.com and googel.com
-    Changed domains, you’ve moved your site
-    Merged 2 websites (or more)
-    Moved pages
-    Too time intensive to track down every site who links to your domain/page and ask them to update it to the new URL
-    Outdated pages – redirect to a newer post/page (use SEP’s WordPress 301 Redirect plugin! Forgive me for shamelessly plugging our plugin…)

Other Redirect Page Uses

-    Logging outgoing links – using a redirect page to know exactly which URL they clicked on leaving the site. An example is a “warning” page that tells the visitor they are now leaving the site.
-    Aliases for long or changing URLs – like tinyurl.com
-    Manipulating search engines (naughty!) – back in the day, a page could show for popular keywords, but redirect visitors to another target page. Of course now days such obvious tactics are caught and penalized.
-    Phishing – redirection by using a similar link to a company site in effort to gain personal information, like a credit card. A classic example here is the oh-so-common Paypal emails I still get requesting me to confirm or dispute a transaction by clicking a link that does not go to the Paypal site.
Incoming links to an incorrect URL can be permanently redirected to the correct location. By using a “moved permanently” redirect URL, the search engines may detect the updated link and use the correct, newer URL.

Types of Redirects

1.    Manual Redirect – the most simple redirect is the basic html anchor
<a href=”https://www.example.com”>link</a>

2.    HTTP Status Codes 3xx
-    300 multiple choices - the web server thinks the URL is not specific enough. (e.g. there are many similar document names to choose from, and you must make a further choice).
-    301 moved permanently – used to indicate a permanently moved page; passes link juice
-    302 Found is the default redirect, if you do not specify a 301 permanent redirect; your links will not pass link juice!
-    303 see other (e.g. for results of cgi-scripts) – usually seen after filling in a website form

3.    Server-Side Redirects – you can’t use html to make a redirect, so one must use a server side script via php, asp, cgi, etc.

4.     Using .htaccess for Redirects - specify 301 for each URL
Example:
Redirect 301 /oldpage.html https://www.example.com/newpage.html

5.    Meta Refresh – is not recommended, people with cognitive or visual disabilities are unable to read moving text quickly or at all. Screen readers are not able to read moving text either. If you must use a meta refresh redirect, use a 0 delay. Every search engine treats refresh meta differently and it is suggested that a meta refresh will be treated as a 302. It wouldn’t pass link juice.

6.    Javascript Redirects – are ignored entirely by search engines. Not recommended for SEO at all.

For SEO purposes, it is very important that you are aware that the default redirect (if you do not specify it) is 302. The 302 does not pass link juice.  If you use the 301 redirect, it acts as a natural bridge between what your URL was and where the new location is. The 301 redirection is SEO friendly and the search engines treat it with more authority than a 302 (which is considered temporary only).

So unless you have a very good reason to use the 302 (your page really is temporary), make sure you specify a permanently moved location with a 301 redirect.

Traduction francaise: Redirections en OMR