How long should you keep 301 redirects?
-
Hi,
Back in 2009 I decided to update an older site from .htm and .shtml to .php. In order to minimize the impact I would go in every month and do a 301 redirect on the .shtml page to the new .php page. So I have many that range from 2009 through 2010.
I had left the old 301's because I felt they would only be used if needed but I would think I should clean up my .htaccess by removing the old 301 redirects if they are not needed.
How long should you keep this type of 301 redirect?
Thanks!
-
Hi,
Should the 301 redirects appear in the sitemap.xml as this could get pretty big over the years?
-
Here's another idea. Rather than worrying about numerous 301 redirects, why not just set up a rewrite rule in .htaccess using mod_rewrite (if you're using an Apache server) that rewrites all URL's with a file extension (.htm, .html, .shtml etc) to just end with a trailing slash or not include the extension?
One rewrite rule would then redirect all URL's that have an extension to a version without, and subsequently, this would be the only version that would end up getting indexed in search engines and that anyone would ever see. Plus it keeps your URL structure much cleaner.
-
This should explain everything for you need to know for a variety of options: http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php
Personally I never remove 301's (being a "permanent" redirect), for fear of 404's from some outside links.
Here's a thread from Matt Cutts discussing the difference between 301 and 302 redirects: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-discussing-302-redirects/
-
What's the best way to implement a 301 redirect if you don't have htaccess?
-
Are people still linking to you at your old .htm pages? Then you should keep the 301s in place. There's no need to "clean up" your .htaccess.
If you decide to remove the 301s anyway and start seeing a lot of 404s in Webmaster Tools, that's a good indication you should put the 301s back in place.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How long before I can use a redirected domain without taking back link juice?
We recently moved our website to a new domain that better matched our brand. I want to use the old domain at some point for another aspect of our business. How long after we do the domain redirect will it be safe to use the old domain again--without affecting the seo of the new domain? Thanks! Harriet
Technical SEO | | zharriet0 -
301 redirect new site design
Hi I'm just setting up some 301 redirects for a new site design about to go live. The old site structure had some 'overview' pages in the urls (without any content) that just 302'd to a sub page. Do i need 301 redirect these overview page urls or since they had no content theres no need and I probably shouldn't or should i ? Also for pages that have no direct equivalent replacement is it still best to 301 to nearest relevant page or just leave it. For example a thank you page that currently shows after user submits email form wont be on new site (since message shows on form page after submission rather than new page). Should i 301 to form page or just leave it ? Cheers Dan
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
After I 301 redirect duplicate pages to my rel=canonical page, do I need to add any tags or code to the non canonical pages?
I have many duplicate pages. Some pages have 2-3 duplicates. Most of which have Uppercase and Lowercase paths (generated by Microsoft IIS). Does this implementation of 301 and rel=canonical suffice? Or is there more I could do to optimize the passing of duplicate page link juice to the canonical. THANK YOU!
Technical SEO | | PFTools0 -
302 or 301 redirect to https ?
I am redirecting whole site to https. Is there a difference between 302 or 301 redirect for seo? Site never been indexed. Planning to do that with .htaccess command RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
Technical SEO | | Kotkov
RewriteRule ^(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L] There are plenty of ways http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/ssl-example-usage-in-htaccess.html Which way would be the best? Thanks is advance0 -
301 Redirect
Hi there, We are re-branding & re-structuring our website, there will be quite a number of 301 re-directs, possibly hundreds. The question is: Should i wait until the re-branding has been completed and do al the 301's in one go?, or should I try and do 301's as i go along? Kind Regards
Technical SEO | | Paul780 -
How to safely reduce the number of 301 redirects / should we be adding so many?
Hi All, We lost a lot of good rankings over the weekend with no obvious cause. Our top keyword went from p3 to p12, for example. Site speed is pretty bad (slower than 92% of sites!) but it has always been pretty bad. I'm on to the dev team to try and crunch this (beyond image optimisation) but I know that something I can effect is the number of 301 redirects we have in place. We have hundreds of 301s because we've been, perhaps incorrectly, adding one every time we find a new crawl error in GWT and it isn't because of a broken link on our site or on an external site where we can't track down the webmaster to fix the link. Is this bad practice, and should we just ignore 404s caused by external broken URLs? If we wanted to reduce these numbers, should we think about removing ones that are only in place due to external broken URLs? Any other tips for safely reducing the number of 301s? Thanks, all! Chris
Technical SEO | | BaseKit0 -
Does 301 redirecting a site multiple times keep the value of the original site?
Hi, All! If I 301 redirect site www.abc.com to www.def.com, it should pass (almost) all linkjuice, rank, trust, etc. What happens if I then redirect site www.def.com to www.ghi.com? Does the value of the original site pass indefinitely as long as you do the redirects correctly? Or does it start to be devalued at some point? If anyone's had experience redirecting a site more than once and they've seen reportable good/bad/neutral results, that would be very helpful. Thanks in advance! -Aviva B
Technical SEO | | debi_zyx0 -
301 redirect .htaccess problem
Can anyone explain to me why this doesn't work? Redirect 301 /category/diamond-pendants/nstart/1/start/(.*) http://www.povada.com/category/pendants/nstart/1/start/$1 Im trying to replace everything after /start/ and insert it into the new url. Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | 13375auc30