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The Art of (URL) Redirection

So, the idea behind URL redirection is pretty simple: you click on a link you've found off a search engine query, or you type in a certain URL into your web browser, but instead of landing on the URL you searched for, you are either automatically or manually transferred (or redirected) to a different URL. There's an ongoing debate in the SEO industry about the merits of URL redirects, or lack thereof. Some SEO experts choose to veto redirects altogether. Others claim there are a select few types of redirects that can be applied to a site without harming its ranking. At SalemGlobal, we fall somewhere in the middle -- we think URL redirects should always be used sparingly, and cautiously.

However, one fact does emerge out of the noisy cacophony made over URL redirects, namely, if you're going to use a redirect, it should be a 301. 301 redirects are referred to as "server-side", "permanent" redirects, which means that (a) when the redirect occurs, all of the transferring action is performed automatically on the server with no involvement from the person typing at his or her computer, and (b) the redirect tells the search engines that the move to the new URL is permanent, for good, everlasting, etc., etc. This latter element is especially important to keep in mind for those who are SEO-conscious, because it means that when search engines run into a 301 redirect they will most likely not de-index the page from their database, meaning the website as a whole will continue getting credit for the page being redirected. And, as readers of this weekly tip have come to know, the more pages on your site, the better.

When should a 301 redirect be instituted? To answer this question, we might as well consult the people who really count. Google's publicly available webmaster guidelines recommend using a 301 redirect when:

  • You've moved your site to a new domain, and you want to make the transition as seamless as possible.
  • People access your site through several different URLs. If, for example, your home page can be reached in multiple ways - for instance, http://example.com/home, http://home.example.com, or http://www.example.com. It's a good idea to pick one of those URLs as your preferred (canonical) destination, and use 301 redirects to send traffic from the other URLs to your preferred URL.
  • You're merging two websites and want to make sure that links to outdated URLs are redirected to the correct pages.
There are multiple ways of actually implementing the 301 redirect code. The best method is to introduce the 301 into the htaccess file of your website, since this is the file checked first by search engines bots. However, if you prefer, you can also easily add the 301 redirect with PHP or ASP code, among other options. The one method you should avoid is adding your 301 redirect through javascript or meta tags. This is a sure way of getting your page de-indexed, and thus hurting the overall ranking of your website.





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Lastly, Raphi Salem speaks on Rocket Science of Search Engine Optimization, click here for the PDF file.