SEO redirects: a guide to doing them properly

SEO redirects send users and search engines from an old URL to a new one, and done properly they pass the old page’s rankings and links across. The rule is simple: one hop, straight to the final page, using a permanent 301 redirect whenever the move is permanent.

Redirects are one of the few technical changes that can wipe out traffic overnight. A missed redirect turns a ranking page into a 404. A chain of five redirects slows every visit and wastes crawl budget. A loop locks users and Google out entirely.

Most of the damage we see in audits isn’t from one bad redirect. It’s from years of redirects stacked on top of each other, through redesigns, CMS changes and URL tidy-ups that nobody documented.

When you need a redirect

You need a redirect any time a URL that has traffic, links or rankings stops being the place that content lives. The common triggers are:

• Changing a page’s URL or slug
• Merging two or more pages into one
• Deleting a page that has a clear replacement
• Moving from HTTP to HTTPS
• Switching between www and non-www, or standardising trailing slashes
• Moving to a new domain or a new CMS

If a page is deleted and nothing replaces it, don’t redirect it to the homepage. Google tends to treat irrelevant redirects like that as soft 404s, so they pass little or no value. Let it return a 404 or 410 instead, or point it at the closest relevant page if one exists.

Why 301 redirects are the default for SEO

A 301 tells search engines the move is permanent, so Google moves its signals to the new URL and shows that one in results. It’s the strongest canonical signal you can give, and it’s what you want for nearly every SEO redirect.

Server-side redirects (301 and 308 for permanent moves) are what Google recommends. Meta refresh and JavaScript redirects can work, but Google has to render the page to see them, so they’re slower and less reliable. Use them only when you have no access to the server. Temporary redirects have their place, but they tell Google to keep the old URL in the index, which isn’t what you want when a page has moved for good.

Redirect chains and why they cost you

A redirect chain is when URL A redirects to B, which redirects to C. Each extra hop adds load time for users and another request for Googlebot. Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, then gives up, but well before that point chains slow crawling and dilute how cleanly signals pass.

Chains usually build up over time. A page moves in 2019, moves again in 2022, and the HTTP to HTTPS rule adds another hop in front of both. Nobody notices because the page still loads.

To fix a chain:

1. Crawl the site and export every redirect, including the full chain for each starting URL.
2. For each chain, find the final destination that returns a 200 status.
3. Update every redirect rule so the starting URL goes straight to that final destination in one hop.
4. Update internal links so they point at the final URL directly, not at any redirect.
5. Recrawl to confirm no chains remain.

A site crawl will surface chains, loops and internal links that still point at redirected URLs in one report.

Redirect loops

A redirect loop is when URLs redirect back to each other, so the browser never reaches a page. Users see an error such as “too many redirects”, and Google can’t index anything in the loop.

Loops usually come from conflicting rules. A CMS plugin adds a trailing slash while the server config removes it. An HTTPS rule and a www rule fight each other. A page gets redirected to a URL that was itself redirected back. The fix is to find the competing rules and remove one, then test the URL with a header checker or crawler until it resolves in a single hop.

Redirects during a site migration

A migration is where redirects matter most, because every URL on the site may change at once. The process that protects rankings looks like this:

1. Build a full list of old URLs. Combine a crawl, your XML sitemaps, analytics landing pages and the top linked pages from a backlink tool. A crawl alone misses old pages that still have links.
2. Map each old URL to its closest new equivalent. One to one wherever possible. Don’t bulk redirect everything to the homepage.
3. Test the redirect map on staging before launch, checking for chains and loops.
4. Launch, then crawl the old URL list on day one to confirm every URL returns a single 301 to a 200 page.
5. Keep the redirects in place long term. Google advises keeping them for at least a year. In practice, keep them as long as old URLs still get links or visits.

Our guide to planning a website migration covers the wider process, from benchmarking to post-launch checks.

Redirect housekeeping

Good redirect hygiene is mostly about keeping the list clean:

• Keep one source of truth for redirects (server config, CDN or a single plugin), not several.
• Point internal links at final URLs, so users and Googlebot never hit a redirect from inside your own site.
• Only list final, indexable URLs in your XML sitemap.
• Match canonicals to the redirect target, so the two signals agree.
• Recheck after every redesign, plugin change or URL tidy-up.

Redirect problems are one of the first things our SEO audits check, because they’re often behind traffic drops that look like algorithm updates. If you’re planning a migration or suspect old redirects are costing you, book a free strategy session and we’ll review them with you.

Related reading: our guides to technical SEO, indexability and trailing slashes, and 301 vs 302 redirects.

Common questions