Redirects
URL redirection is a process put in place to forward site visitors to an alternative page when the page they are looking to view is no longer live on the site. Redirects may be implemented for migration purposes, as well as for site re-architecture and when pages naturally expire. They can also be used to consolidate ranking signals. Our SEO Office Hours notes below cover the different redirection types and explore how Google understands these.
Further reading: The ABCs of HTTP Status Codes
Many-to-one Redirects & Noindexed Pages Are Sometimes Treated as Soft 404s
Noindexed pages and too many pages that redirect to one URL can both be treated as soft 404 errors by Google. Having soft 404s doesn’t impact the perceived quality of your website, but these pages won’t be crawled as frequently or indexed at all.
Redirected URLs Can Appear as Soft 404s if Many Pages Are Redirecting to One
Redirecting URLs shouldn’t be showing up as soft 404 errors unless you’ve removed a lot of pages and are redirecting them all to one page.
PageRank Can be Passed Through Meta Refresh Redirects But They’re Not Advised
Avoid using meta refresh as a redirect as these can have accessibility issues, especially when a 301 redirect can be used instead. If Google can recognise a meta refresh redirect PageRank will be passed across though.
Using Non-301 Redirects For Migration Causes Google to Reprocess Each URL
For a HTTPS migration, use 301 redirects rather than 302 or 303 redirects as the 301 is a cleaner signal for Google to process a migration. Non-301 redirects can cause Google to reprocess each URL individually.
Google May Take Longer to Process Redirects For Noindexed Pages
Google crawls noindexed pages less frequently. If a redirect is set up for a noindexed page, Google may take longer to process this because it is being crawled less frequently.
A/B Testing During a Site Migration Can Delay Google Processing the Move
If you’re running large scale A/B testing during a site migration, this can confuse Google’s picture of your site and prevent it from running an algorithm to easily switch all of your URLs across to the new version.
Google Treats Meta Refresh as Redirect Meaning Wrong Content Might be Indexed
Google treats meta refresh as a redirect, which may mean the wrong page is indexed e.g. a product listing page with a meta refresh to a payment page will mean the latter is indexed rather than the actual content.
Redirect Old URLs When Migrating Images to a New CDN
When migrating images to a new CDN, make sure to redirect the old image URLs to the new ones as well as updating the embedded links in the webpage. Images aren’t crawled as frequently as webpages so you need to make sure all signals are aligned so Google can move them over as quickly as possible. Consider setting up a subdomain and transferring the images, so the URL doesn’t change except from the hosting.
Meta Tag Directives Won’t Work for Redirects
Google needs to be able to access a page in order to pick up its meta tags such as noindex, which is impossible if a redirect is in place. Pick either ‘noindex, nofollow’ or a 301 redirect for unwanted content.
Avoid Redirecting Users From Mobile Sites to an App
When redirecting from your mobile site to an app, make sure that users are able to access your site’s content normally from the search results. John recommends adding a banner to help users navigate to your app by choice.