Redirects Do’s and Don’ts

Know about what you can do, to have user, browser and search engine friendly redirects.

Do’s	Don’t
use max 3 redirects in a chain. Avoid useless hops. Only use one type of redirect in a chain No penalties/limits on number of redirects on a domain. Limit redirect lists by using rules. Use 301 Redirect to redirect old URIs with SEO value to new URIs and in case of canonicalization Only use 302 Redirects on a domain or between subdomains on a domain. 301 Redirects are forever. Keep controlling them. Make smaller chunks of redirects if you want to move page structure.	More than 5 redirects in a chain (HTTP/1.0 Browser Limits) More than 3 redirects in a chain (Google Bot Limits) Mixing up 301 and 302/307 redirects. (Confusing for Google Bot) Long redirect chains with useless hubs (Bad Page Speed and Bad User Experince) Big lists of redirect rules (Bad Page Speed and Bad User Experince) Redirecting URIs with no SEO value. Better use 404 or 410 in this case. Using 302 redirects cross domain (new URI will get indexed). Search Engines will tread this Redirect as Permanent. Using 302 Redirects (HTTP/1.0) or analog 307 Redirects (HTTP/1.1) Using 307 Redirects with HTTP/1.0 Using 303 Redirects Redirect too many URLs simultaneous. Using Frames/Javascript Redirects/Meta Refresh

Do’s

Don’t

use max 3 redirects in a chain. Avoid useless hops.
Only use one type of redirect in a chain
No penalties/limits on number of redirects on a domain.
Limit redirect lists by using rules.
Use 301 Redirect to redirect old URIs with SEO value to new URIs and in case of canonicalization
Only use 302 Redirects on a domain or between subdomains on a domain.
301 Redirects are forever. Keep controlling them.
Make smaller chunks of redirects if you want to move page structure.

More than 5 redirects in a chain (HTTP/1.0 Browser Limits)
More than 3 redirects in a chain (Google Bot Limits)
Mixing up 301 and 302/307 redirects. (Confusing for Google Bot)
Long redirect chains with useless hubs (Bad Page Speed and Bad User Experince)
Big lists of redirect rules (Bad Page Speed and Bad User Experince)
Redirecting URIs with no SEO value. Better use 404 or 410 in this case.
Using 302 redirects cross domain (new URI will get indexed). Search Engines will tread this Redirect as Permanent.
Using 302 Redirects (HTTP/1.0) or analog 307 Redirects (HTTP/1.1)
Using 307 Redirects with HTTP/1.0
Using 303 Redirects
Redirect too many URLs simultaneous.
Using Frames/Javascript Redirects/Meta Refresh