Redirects are the directives that direct the browsers and search engines to navigate through one URL to another. They are mandatory where the web site needs a makeover, altering the URLs or even reorganizing pages. The proper redirects will save the SEO positions and traffic as well as make sure that the users will never arrive on the broken or the old pages.
The following are the most widespread redirects:
A permanent redirect that is used when permanent movement of content has taken place. It redirects the majority of the SEO power of the old URL to the new one and is the option of choice in long term changeover.
Applied in case of a temporary change. The original page can be reused, and value in terms of SEO is not completely transferred.
It is a type of redirection where a POST request has to be redirected to a new GET address.
A more recent form of the 302 redirect, employed when the redirect needs to be done by strictly preserving the request method.
An HTML meta tag is used as a redirect, with a delay. Not suitable in terms of SEO.
Redirects play an important role in a variety of scenarios, particularly when expanding or restructuring websites:
In case you change or reconfigure your site URLs, redirects should guarantee that the users and search engines are redirected to the right pages.
In the case of a combination of various pages into a single page, redirects assist to direct traffic to the refreshed master page.
On the transition to a new domain, redirects transfer passes and SEO value of the old site to the new one.
Rather than displaying a 404 error, direct the users to the nearest applicable page.
In case the same content is posted in different URLs, there should be redirects to define the desired version to avoid dilution of SEO.
With the help of .htaccess (Apache Server).
Insert redirect rules on your htaccess. Typical of the PHP-based websites.
Add redirects to your NGINX server block. Syntax differs from Apache.
WordPress, Shopify and Joomla have in-built redirect functionality, or redirect extensions, and implementation can be done easily.
Programming languages such as PHP, Python or Node.js may send redirect headers.
There are numerous online redirectors that can be used to configure or authenticate redirects without server access.
The choice of the right redirect is crucial to preserve the search positions and offer the convenient user experience. 301 redirects must always be used in cases of permanent changes whereas temporary changes must use 302 or 307.
Do not use Meta Refresh in the optimisation of search.
To have a more elaborate guideline, you may refer to the official documentation of redirects by Google.
