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Redirecting URLs correctly for SEO

Here’s a terrific guide which you may want to file away for a reference. Redirects for SEO: A Simple (But Complete) Guide on the Ahrefs Blog looks at when you should use redirects, the best ways to implement them, and tips like watching out for ‘redirect loops’.

The article points out five common examples of when we might want to use redirects.

  1. If we’re moving domains, all the pages on the old domain will need to be permanently redirected to their locations on the new domain;
  2. If we’re merging multiple websites into one;
  3. If we’re switching from HTTP to HTTPS, requiring every unsecure HTTP page will need to be permanently redirected;
  4. If we’re running a temporary promotion and want to send visitors from a quoted URL to a permanent one via a temporary redirect;
  5. If we’re deleting content from a site, in which case we might want to permanently redirect its URL to a relevant, similar page, so that any backlinks to the old page still work (and count for SEO purposes).