301 Redirects: How to Use Them & How They Affect SEO

Regularly updating your website to region outdated contented aliases update your URLs is cardinal for maintaining online visibility. In these cases, it’s important to usage 301 redirects to guarantee hunt systems and users extremity up successful the correct place.

This guideline will explicate what 301 redirects are, really they effect your SEO, and really to usage them properly. 

Let’s begin.

What Is a 301 Redirect?

A 301 redirect is an HTTP position codification that sends users and hunt systems from the requested URL to a different URL and indicates that the move is permanent.

If /old-page/ has a 301 redirect to /replacement-page/, past anyone who attempts to sojourn /old-page/ automatically ends up connected /replacement-page/.

How a 301 Redirect Works

A 301 redirect useful by telling browsers and hunt systems that a page has permanently moved to a caller URL.

When a browser aliases crawler requests an aged URL that’s since been redirected, the server replies pinch a 301 position codification and provides the caller address. The browser aliases crawler past loads the caller page. 

Usually, 301 redirects hap truthful quickly that visitors don't moreover announcement they clicked connected an aged page but landed connected a caller one. And the reside barroom updates automatically.

How Do 301 Redirects Affect Your SEO?

Using 301 redirects mostly doesn’t impact your SEO because they transportation hunt motor rankings and ranking signals from aged pages to replacement pages and besides nonstop postulation from the aged URL to the caller one. 

Search engines for illustration Google typically transportation almost each of the aged page's ranking powerfulness to the caller page. This intends you tin usually clasp the “SEO value” of the original URL (i.e., the authority the page has gained done backlinks).

Because 301 redirects besides guarantee users scope the correct pages alternatively of surgery aliases suboptimal pages, those users are much apt to prosecute positively pinch your site. Which is bully for SEO and trading successful general.

It’s worthy noting that 301 redirects tin negatively effect your page speed, but mostly the effect is minor. And if you’re redirecting from a deleted aliases low-value page to a new, high-value page, the benefits typically outweigh this imaginable risk.

Just beryllium alert that hunt engines return clip to update their indexes and admit the redirects you put successful place. After you group 1 up, it tin return weeks aliases moreover months for your pages to spot ranking changes. 

How Do 301 Redirects Affect AI Visibility?

Using 301 redirects usually doesn’t impact whether an AI strategy tin aboveground your content. 

That said, it’s imaginable AI systems mightiness mention aged versions of your pages based connected AI training information successful ways that mightiness beryllium confusing. This could impact the personification experience.

But ultimately, if the redirect is designed to return a personification from an outdated aliases low-value page to a much valuable page, the redirect is still astir apt worthy it. But this does mean it’s moreover much important to guarantee your redirects lead to applicable pages.

AI devices for illustration ChatGPT besides sometimes see surgery links successful their responses. This intends pages you delete but don’t redirect could besides still beryllium cited successful AI responses. Redirecting these pages to a applicable page (where 1 exists) is particularly important for ensuring a affirmative personification experience.

But if location is nary suitable page to redirect to, 404 (or 410 for permanently removed content) is typically still the correct response. 

Use Cases for 301 Redirects

These are the astir communal usage cases for 301 redirects:

Deleting a Page That Has a Replacement

When you delete a page, you tin adhd a 301 redirect from the deleted page to a replacement page to perchance walk connected hunt visibility and traffic.

But you should only redirect to an balanced aliases near-equivalent page that’s apt to fulfill the aforesaid needs arsenic the deleted page. 

For example, you tin sphere hunt visibility and postulation by adding 301 redirects from:

• Discontinued merchandise pages to replacement merchandise pages
• Old blog posts to caller blog posts connected akin topics
• Niche work accusation pages to broader work accusation pages

Don’t adhd a 301 redirect to an irrelevant page (e.g., from an aged blog station to your homepage). Because these kinds of redirects tin confuse users and hunt systems.

If you want to delete a page that has nary bully replacement, you should mostly return the 404 Page Not Found error. To show users and hunt engines that the page is nary longer available.

Semrush’s 404 correction page looks for illustration this:

Migrating Your Site to a New Domain

Implementing 301 redirects is an important portion of immoderate website migration task (e.g., if you’re switching to a caller domain sanction arsenic portion of a rebrand).

• If you’re keeping the aforesaid website structure connected your caller domain, you tin instrumentality a wide redirect to nonstop visitors from the aged domain to the corresponding way connected the caller domain (e.g., olddomain.com/path > newdomain.com/path)
• If you’re changing your website structure, you’ll request to create a redirect representation that matches up each aged URL pinch its replacement URL (e.g., olddomain.com/old-path > newdomain.com/new-path)

For migrations involving hundreds aliases thousands of pages, create a broad redirect representation earlier you execute the migration. Export your aged site's URL structure, representation each URL to its caller equivalent, and trial the redirects successful a staging situation earlier going live.

See our website migration checklist for a afloat guideline connected really to decently instrumentality redirects during a migration.

Migrating from One Platform to Another

When migrating from 1 contented guidance strategy aliases website level to another, 301 redirects are basal for preserving your hunt visibility and traffic.

For example, ecommerce level Shopify typically uses URL structures for illustration /products/product-name and /collections/category-name.

Meanwhile, the WordPress plugin WooCommerce often uses /product/product-name and /product-category/category-name.

Your redirect mapping from Shopify to WooCommerce could look like:

• Old: https:/store.example.com/products/blue-widget
• New: https://www.example.com/product/blue-widget/

As pinch modular domain migrations, it’s champion to group up a redirect representation earlier you commencement to debar issues later on. 

Changing URL Slugs

If you alteration a URL slug, adhd a 301 redirect from the aged URL to the caller URL. 

The URL slug is the past portion of the page reside that serves arsenic a unsocial identifier of that page. 

For example, you mightiness want to hole a typo successful the URL slug. Like this:

• Redirect from: https://www.semrush.com/blog/031-redirect/
• Redirect to: https://www.semrush.com/blog/301-redirect/

Or make your URL slugs shorter and much descriptive. Like this:

• Redirect from: https://www.semrush.com/blog/h25j-kb3t2b2t-po9/
• Redirect to: https://www.semrush.com/blog/301-redirects/

Moving a Page to Different URL Path

If you move a page to a different URL path, adhd a 301 redirect from the aged URL to the caller URL.

For example, if you present a caller merchandise class and move existing products to this category, you mightiness group up redirects for illustration this:

• Old URL: https://www.example.com/old-category-name/product-name
• New URL: https://www.example.com/new-category-name/product-name

Consolidating Duplicate aliases Similar Pages

You tin usage 301 redirects to consolidate copy aliases akin pages connected your website.

Consolidating pages utilizing a 301 redirect allows you to forestall disorder for users and hunt systems, harvester the SEO spot of aggregate pages, and streamline website maintenance.

Duplicate pages are mostly caused by:

• WWW and non-WWW URLs (e.g., www.example.com and example.com)
• HTTP and HTTPS URLs (e.g., http://www.example.com and https://www.example.com)
• Trailing slash and non-trailing slash URLs (e.g., example.com/ and example.com)
• Case sensitivity (e.g., example.com/blog/ and example.com/Blog/)
• Session IDs aliases parameters (e.g., example.com/page?sid=123 and example.com/page)
• Index files (e.g., example.com/page and example.com/page/index.html)
• Multiple paths to the aforesaid page (e.g., example.com/page and example.com/category/page)

It’s besides smart to consolidate pages that service very akin purposes for users.

Let’s opportunity your website has 3 blog posts astir the aforesaid topic. You could harvester these posts into a single, broad guideline and adhd 301 redirects pointing from the aged URLs to the caller URL accordingly.

To find pages that mightiness beryllium worthy consolidating, usage Semrush’s Position Tracking tool.

The “Cannibalization” study shows which pages connected your tract show for the aforesaid terms. This suggests that the pages are akin and could beryllium competing pinch each different for hunt visibility (an rumor known arsenic keyword cannibalization).

If you find pages pinch very akin purposes erstwhile utilizing Position Tracking, see combining them and implementing 301 redirects.

When NOT to Use 301 Redirects

Here are 3 instances erstwhile you shouldn’t usage 301 redirects, and what you should do instead:

• Temporary contented moves: If you're moving a page temporarily (e.g., for seasonal promotions), usage a 302 redirect. This tells hunt engines to support the original URL successful their index.
• A/B testing: When split-testing page variations, usage 302 redirects aliases JavaScript-based redirects. Using 301s tin origin hunt engines to consolidate your trial variations, skewing your results.
• Removing a page that has nary suitable substitute: If a page is genuinely gone pinch nary replacement, service a due 404 error. Don't redirect to your homepage aliases a generic class page—this is confusing for users and hunt systems.

How to Do a 301 Redirect

To do a 301 redirect, you request to usage the redirect settings successful your website editor, usage a suitable website plugin, aliases get a web developer’s help. 

Exactly really you instrumentality a 301 redirect depends connected really your website is group up.

Here are a fewer of the astir communal situations:

How to Do a 301 Redirect connected WordPress

To group up 301 redirects connected WordPress websites, you tin usage plugins. 

There are dedicated redirect plugins for illustration Redirection and 301 Redirects for WordPress websites. These plugins are typically straightforward to use, allowing you to group the aged URL and representation it to the caller URL.

You tin besides group up redirects for a WordPress tract pinch a paid type of the Yoast SEO plugin. Simply take the “301 Moved Permanently” option, adhd your aged URL and replacement URL, past click “Add redirect.”

How to Set Up Redirects successful Other Content Management Systems and Website Platforms

Here are basal 301 URL redirect instructions for immoderate different contented guidance systems: 

• Adobe Commerce: Go to “Marketing” > “SEO & Search” > “URL Rewrites” to usage the custom URL rewrites feature. You tin besides set up automatic redirects to grip merchandise aliases class URL changes.
• Drupal: Install and usage the Redirect module
• HubSpot: Go to “Settings” > “Content” > “Domains & URLs” > “URL Redirects” to usage the URL redirects tool
• Joomla: Install and usage 1 of these URL redirection plugins
• Shopify: Go to “Content” > “Menus” > “View URL Redirects” > “Create URL redirect” to usage the built-in URL redirect feature
• Squarespace: Open the developer devices sheet and click “URL mappings” to usage the URL mappings feature
• Webflow: Go to “Site settings” > “Publishing” > “301 redirects” to usage the built-in redirect feature
• Wix: Go to your SEO Dashboard > “Tools and settings” > “URL Redirect Manager” to usage the URL Redirect Manager

How to Set Up 301 Redirects Using an .htaccess File

You tin group up 301 redirects utilizing .htaccess if your website runs connected an Apache server, but only do truthful if you’re assured that you won’t make mistakes that could harm your SEO performance. 

Find and edit your .htaccess record successful your web host’s record manager, specifically wrong your site’s guidelines files (often titled “public_html”). 

Once you’re successful your .htaccess file, make judge you person the pursuing lines to move RewriteEngine on:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
</IfModule>

You tin past adhd rules depending connected your circumstantial redirect needs. To redirect a azygous URL, it would look for illustration this:

RewriteRule ^old-page/?$ https://www.yourdomain.com/new-page/ [R=301,L]

See our afloat guideline to .htaccess 301 redirects for a much elaborate walkthrough. 

If you request to group up 301 redirects successful bulk, it’s usually champion to get a web developer’s help.

Best Practices for 301 Redirects

Follow these champion practices to guarantee your 301 redirects activity decently and support your SEO goals:

Update Links That Point to Redirected URLs

Wherever possible, update immoderate internal links that constituent to a redirected URL truthful they constituent straight to the replacement URL instead. 

Also update immoderate different links beyond your website that you control, specified arsenic those successful your societal media profiles and directory listings.

For example, if /old-page/ redirects to /replacement-page/, find links that spell to /old-page/ and alteration those links to /replacement-page/. 

Avoiding unnecessary nexus redirects can:

• Reduce load times (although this is improbable to beryllium a immense effect)
• Improve crawl ratio (i.e., thief hunt systems research your site)
• Prevent redirect chains (i.e., redirects that lead to redirects, which tin confuse crawlers and origin loading delays)

Remove Redirecting URLs from Your XML Sitemap

Remove redirecting URLs from your XML sitemap to guarantee you’re sending clear signals to hunt systems.

The XML sitemap should only see URLs you want to show successful hunt results. Because hunt systems usage the record to thief determine which pages to crawl and index.

You mightiness besides request to adhd your replacement URLs to your XML sitemap if you’re redirecting to wholly caller URLs.

Only Redirect to Canonical URLs

You should only redirect to a canonical URL, which is the superior reside for a webpage. 

(You tin specify canonicals pinch the rel=“canoncial” nexus attribute.)

For example, if your blog is disposable via https://example.com/blog/ and https://example.com/blog/?page=1, Google will effort to prime 1 URL arsenic the canonical type that will show successful hunt results. And you should attraction your SEO efforts connected this canonical version.

In practice, this intends you should not redirect to a URL that:

• Has a canonical tag pointing to different URL
• Has a 301 redirect to different URL

Avoid Redirect Chains and Loops

If you redirect to a page that has a 301 redirect successful place, you consequence creating a redirect concatenation that slows users and hunt engines down. Or creating an infinite redirect loop.

Redirect chains hap erstwhile aggregate redirects are stacked successful series (e.g., page A > page B > page C). This forces browsers and hunt systems to make aggregate requests earlier reaching the last destination.

These redirect “hops” tin perchance effect really the nexus equity flows from the first page to the redirected URL. They tin besides summation the page load time.

A redirect loop occurs erstwhile you redirect from 1 page to different page that redirects backmost to the original page. For example, URL X redirects to URL Y, which redirects backmost to URL X, and truthful on. 

This creates an infinite loop that confuses hunt engines and provides a mediocre personification experience, usually resulting successful a “too galore redirects” error.

Redirect chains and loops discarded crawl budget—the clip and resources a crawler will give to your tract earlier moving on. This intends immoderate of your important pages tin beryllium missed.

You tin place redirects connected your website, on pinch redirect chains and loops, utilizing Semrush's Site Audit instrumentality by clicking the “Issues” tab and searching for “redirects.” If there’s an issue, click the number beside the problem to spot a database of the affected pages.

The solution is straightforward: update each 301 redirects to constituent straight to the last destination URL.

Find 301-Related Issues connected Your Website

Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality makes it easy to find 301-related issues connected your website.

Use the instrumentality to:

• Monitor the 301 redirects, canonical tags, and impermanent redirects connected your website
• Find soul links that constituent to redirected aliases surgery URLs
• Identify copy contented issues (where you mightiness want to adhd 301 redirects)
• Check for overly agelong URLs that whitethorn request updating
• Ensure your website prioritizes HTTPS complete HTTP
• Look for redirect chains and loops

Site Audit besides checks for dozens of different SEO and AI hunt issues and provides proposal connected really to hole each one. Try it today.