Do Redirects Actually Hurt Your SEO?

You have likely come across several pieces of SEO advice that you are not fully sure are true or not. For example, you may have heard that redirects hurt your SEO. However, it is impossible to fully avoid redirects when running a website. So, do redirects actually hurt your SEO?

Redirects are not inherently bad for your website or SEO. However, putting them in place improperly can be bad for your SEO. The best redirect to protect your SEO is a 301 redirect. This indicates to both visitors and search engines that you have permanently moved the page to a new URL. It should then automatically redirect to that new URL. If you fully delete the content, you can also use a 301 to take the visitor to a relevant or similar piece of content on your website.

If you simply do not have a place to redirect the page to, what do you do? A 410 redirect is best to use in this situation. It is not the 404 redirect you want to avoid, but it does not redirect to unrelated pages or content which is worse than just having a page stating that the content was deleted.

To learn more and schedule a free marketing consultation, call us at 206-973-7865. You can also reach out online via chat or contact form.