Redirects are something you can’t avoid when working with online marketing. But what exactly are they? What types of redirects are there? And what is best practice?
I’ll do my best to answer these questions in this article.
The short definition of redirects
In short, URL redirects are a way to redirect one URL — that is, a web address — to another. For example, if you visit domain1.com, you might be redirected to domain2.com.
Another example could be a redirect within the same website.
For instance, if you visit domain.com/blog and get redirected to domain.com/articles.
The different types of redirects
When we talk about redirects, we usually mean two types:
301 redirects and 302 redirects.
A 301 redirect means a page has moved permanently. Using the example above, it means what was at domain.com/blog has permanently moved to domain.com/articles.
A 302 redirect means something has moved temporarily. This could be if you are working on a new website and want people to visit a temporary page, for example if a page is down.
When doing a technical SEO analysis, redirects are something you check to see if they are done correctly, as this can have a big impact on your website’s performance in search results.
Google and redirects
When working with redirects, we do it for two reasons. We do it for the user, so they end up in the right place if they visit a URL that has been moved. And we do it for search engines (in Denmark, mainly Google).
When do you use redirects?
As the name suggests, redirects are used when you want to redirect from one URL to another.
This happens if you delete a page on your website and want Google to transfer the SEO value from the deleted page to the new one — and also understand that the page has been moved and replaced.
For example, if a product on an online store is discontinued or a company no longer offers a service, redirects become relevant.
Redirects can be simple or complex
Another common example is when you change platforms and the URL structure changes. This could happen if you move your shop from Magento to Shopify.
Different shop systems have different URL structures. Therefore, it may be necessary to create redirects from old URLs to new URLs to ensure Google understands the pages have moved.
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