How Long Should You Keep 301 Redirects?

GuruuAugust 11, 2023

Table of Contents

While surfing on the web, you sometimes face a lot of redirects. There can be various reasons behind it. Too many redirects on a page are not a good sign for any business, it simply irritates the users and makes them leave the site immediately and choose another.

While dealing with redirects, have you ever thought of keeping 301 redirects on your website?

With the help of this guide, you will get to know a lot about redirects. So, stay tuned!

What is 301 Redirect?

This is an HTTP code that redirects the users and search engines from the previous page to the new one. It reflects that a page has moved permanently and passed its ranking from the old URL to the new one.

When You Use 301 Redirect?

There are many types of redirects you can notice, such as 301, 302, meta fresh, etc.

Here are some points to note when you use 301 redirects on your website.

Permanent moving a page to the new URL
Deleting the previous page
Referring your site to the new domain
Change in the site structure
Change to www. URLs
Switching from HTTP to HTTPS
Merging of two domains
Solving upper-class and lower-class issues

Are 301 Redirects Good for Your Website?

When you decide to launch a new website, it is important to use redirects on it. Whether you are changing your company, brand name, domain name, merging with another company, or making changes for any other strategic reasons, redirects are required.

Redirects help in keeping traffic away from going to a dead end and facing a 404 error message. There can be a deep impact on user experience when people can’t find the content they want, thus leave your website.

Also, redirects make sure that search engines keep on indexing the pages even if the URL of the site has changed, which means your site will show up in search results.

While working with redirects there are also some drawbacks of using 301 on a website.

Why 301 Redirects are Bad for Your Website?

One of the main issues, we face with redirections is a time issue. Every time a web page loads slowly and has a redirect, another web page also takes time to load. Even though it’s milliseconds, you want to crawl your page content as much as possible. Moreover, using 301 redirects is not that good for SEO when they are in the form of long redirect chains, redirect loops, and especially when they comprise the majority of a website’s links.

Redirect chains are formed when there are various redirects, like when a page redirects page to page which is a big no for any website. That’s a time when you have to go for updating the redirect to the last page and removing all middle pages.
Redirection to other pages makes loops. The main thing is that all redirects should be properly tested and should involve two pages only.
Instead of using 301redirects for any temporary website making, you can use 302. As 301 are for permanent use.

Quick Tip:

Is redirection making an issue for your website and affecting your site’s performance? Here’s the solution! Have a word with the experts from the best SEO company in India.

When is it Okay to Remove 301 Redirects?

Although these redirects are permanent, keeping them forever on your site is not that beneficial. As time passes, there will be more chances that your site will undergo various server transfers, redevelopments, etc.

So, how much do you have to wait before removing a 301 redirect?

It’s up to you, how much time you want to keep your 301 redirects, one year minimum is the answer if we look from an SEO point of view. Removing redirects too early can affect your rankings, reduce visitor’s count, and can give a bad impression of your brand to customers.

CONCLUSION

A 301 redirect tells browsers that you have moved to the new page. Use these redirect properly and it will increase your organic traffic.

From the above information, we hope you are clear with the concept of 301 redirects. If not, you can have guidance from the professionals providing affordable SEO Services in India.