Redirects and their impact on SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is a process that is used to promote a business by increasing its presence on search engine. Redirection has a vital role in the SEO process for taking a site to heights. Redirection is a process in which one URL is forwarded to another URL. It refers to linking a page of a website to another URL. When the correct procedure of linking up the pages is performed, instant redirection happens and no one will ever notice it. Redirection is done to make the visitors aware of where to go if they are looking for the page that is not in existence. There are several free tools available that can be utilized to verify if the page that is redirected is done appropriately. SEO is the main thing responsible for getting more and more visitors to any site and thus it is of high importance. But when the redirection is not done correctly, it can completely destroy the reputation of your business.

What are the basic types of Redirects?

• 301 – it signifies the page has beenmoved permanently
• 302 – it signifies that either the page has been found or moved temporarily
• 307 – it works exactly like 302 in some cases and it shows the content or page has been temporarily moved
• Meta Refresh –in this redirect, redirection is basically performed on page level rather than on server level

Why to use Redirection?

There can be numerous reasons behind making the usage of redirection in a site, some of those are mentioned below-

• If you are moving any page or removing it, you probably need to make the redirect so that if any visitor tries to jump on that page can know about it.
• If you are buying a new domain for your website you need to redirect all of the pages of your old site to the new one built.
• You should use redirect if you are merging the two websites to one.
• When you want a visitor to be directed from old to new destination you should use redirect.

When you make up the redirects on a site, it is very important that you should not loose up the rankings of your business. On the basis of the reasons for making the redirects, you can leave redirection if the site could not afford it. Leaving everything aside, if due to the redirects your site is losing its search engine rankings it is better to leave the decision of making redirects.