When the content of a web page is remove or moveURL redirects are used to direct both search engines and users to the new location and avoid possible search errors.
Redirects are necessary to avoid losing SEO position when changing a URL or deleting content.
URL redirects are required to improve a page’s SEO. If a webpage is deleted or a site changes domains without redirecting the URLs correctly, you will see 404 and 300 errors that affect positioning and user experience (UX) as they cause a increased bounce rate and the abandonment of the website.
Redirects are used when the URL of a webpage is changed, when a page that is still receiving traffic and backlinks is removed, when the structure of a webpage or the entire domain is changed, when you migrate from HTTP to HTTPS, even if you want to avoid content being duplicated between URLs with or without “www”.
When it comes to creating an address, especially if it’s a 404, the best thing to do is direct traffic to a page with it similar content. Redirect chains should also be avoided as they could lose you position, as well as redirects from internal links that the content contains. On the other hand, you shouldn’t use the 302 redirect either, unless you are certain that the change is only temporary.
How to carry out a forwarding
Redirects can be done in different ways. The most common type of forwarding is used Plugin that makes this process easier. With that in mind, there are some SEO plugins for WordPress users like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack that can be used to easily redirect. On the other hand, there are other add-ons for redirection like “Easy Redirects Manager”.
On the other hand, stores built with Magento have a built-in rewrite module and Shopify has a built-in URL addressing feature.
It is also possible to redirect server files, for example by editing the .htacccess site file for Apache servers or adding a server block to the nginx.conf file for Nginx servers.
The type of redirect to implement depends on the reason why the redirect is needed, because a temporary redirect is not the same as a permanent redirect. With that in mind, these are the types of redirects that can be performed:
-301 and 308: They indicate that the original URL has been permanently moved to a URL. This is a basic SEO concept as it not only serves to redirect users but also goes beyond PageRank and the authority of the backlinks.
-302 and 307: These are temporary redirects as the original content will still be indexed and ranked in Google. This is an option that appears for both temporary movement and A / B testing.
-303: A redirect is of little use because its function is to indicate that the user is being redirected to another page that was not recently created, such as a loading page. The most common way to avoid duplicating the contents of a form when a user clicks the back button after registration is complete.
-Redirecciones Meta Refresh: Unlike the previous redirects done by the server, the meta-updates are done through the browser. To do this, code is added to the “” section that instructs the browser to go to another page. Although they work just like the others, Google advises that they provide a poor user experience and are therefore not recommended.
-Redirecciones JavaScript: Google has been able to render and understand JavaScript better for a while now. Therefore it is possible to carry out redirects in this language in order to send users and search engines to other sites.
