There are almost 1 billion websites, out of which only 200 million are active. The activation and deactivation of the websites can create an impact on web traffic. Here comes the concept of redirect.
The idea of website redirect is a simpler one. Whenever a reader or user clicks on your web page, they are automatically transferred to another page instead of your page.
It happens for a reason. May you have deleted the older web page, or have merged the web pages.
It also occurs when you re-design your website. But how they are being sent to other pages? The web page utilizes the redirects to diverge the traffic towards different pages.
These redirects can create a direct and significant impact on the SEO ranking of the website. There are five types of redirects.
But here we will discuss only two major types of redirects. I’ll elaborate you all the details and differences of these redirects.
Difference between the redirects
All the SEO experts have heard the term ‘link juice’. It is the term representing the value passed from one page to another.
This is the point where the function of redirect initiated. Are you in a desire to converge the traffic on your web page? I guess this is the reason for which SEO experts work. Then you have to select an appropriate redirect to do so.
The value and status of that redirect are essential in creating or affecting the website ranking or value. But which one will create an impact? And whose impacts are most effective? Which one to use?
I’ll tell you the difference in between two major redirects and also their uses in specific conditions.
301 redirect
The 301 redirects are also known as the permanently moved redirect. It is a redirect that can be carried and distributed in an equal manner.
This redirect is utilized to inform the users that the content is permanently moved to a newer destination. This is mainly utilized when the domain of the website is completely changed.
Or it can be used when the CMS or the URL structure has been changed. For instance; you have a website named A. Now you have moved all of your content to website B.
Using the 301 redirects will inform the search engine that you have shifted from A to B. This will inform them to redirect the ranking of value signals to the new destination of the website.
302 redirect
The 302 redirects are known as the Found redirect. It is also commonly referred to as temporarily move.
This is because; redirect does not pass or carry the link to the new location. It is used to navigate the user to the appropriate location not to find the broken link or an error page or 404 pages not found.
If it does not create impact on the SEO ranking, why shall any of the SEO expert be interested in? It is the most effective one for e-commerce sites. Imagine that you ran out of a product.
You will utilize the 302 redirect to navigate customers on similar products or the category page to the consumer. This will inform the search engine that your stuff is temporarily unavailable maintaining the web ranking.
Well, you need to be cautious. The improper link or redirecting to an inappropriate website may be catastrophic for you.
Effects Of 301 Redirects on SEO
The 301 redirect is the most effective one on your web ranking. This is because; whenever a 301 redirect is utilized, it reflects the page’s permanent transfer.
This makes search engine eliminate old age form the index, and link equity is transferred to the new web-link.
The URL movement from one destination to another the sear engine took time to observe the changes.
Due to the aforementioned reasons, the 301 redirects are directly effective on SEO ranking. Let me explain more of the impacts in a detailed manner.
Indexation
The indexation is the significant impact created on the SEO ranking while using the 301 redirects. When you shift the website to the new URL, Google keeps only one URL indexed that is generally the new one.
When you create a 301 redirect from old-page HTML to the new-page HTML, Google will index the new-page de-indexing the older one. The confusion occurs when Google shoes both of the URL for some time.
The old website losses all its ranking and the newer one will receive an increased bounce rate due to this confusion. The tug of war between the old and new potentially creates a negative impact on the SEO ranking.
Link Equity
The 301 redirects can also be supportive in increasing the SEO ranking of the web page. Despite the negative impact, it increases ranking. The 301 redirects are the 3xx redirects for the SEO.
It transfers almost 90% link equity from the redirected page. Whenever a user clicks on the older link, the search engine opens the older link and then transfers it to the newer link.
On the contrary, imagine you opened a website and see a 404 page not found an error that will be disappointing for you.
This is why the 301 redirects are also considered relevant in increasing SEO ranking faster.
Effects Of 302 Redirects on SEO
It is the general concept that the 302 redirect does not have any impact on the SEO ranking. This is also true. Let’s discuss it in a more elaborative manner.
Whenever a 302 redirect is selected, it reflects that the URL of the page remains the same and the changes are temporary. Therefore, Google does not consider it, and the ranking is maintained.
Then what is the problem? The problem arises when the people cannot understand the difference between the redirects and chose the 302 redirects for permanently moving the website.
You don’t have to worry as I have explained the significant difference in between the redirects. Not negative but there are some positive impacts of 302 on the SEO ranking elaborated below;
302 improves UX
The most frustrating thing is un-availability of the link you search for. The additional one in the frustration is the transfer to the competitor’s link.
Avoid this one, as it may create a negative impact on your SEO ranking. The 301 is considered savior in this condition. It directs the traffic to their similar products, or you can place a date when the out of stock product will be available.
This creates a positive impact; this may enhance or at least maintain web traffic. At this point, you can also use content marketing and navigate the traffic to some related detailed content.
HTTP 1.1/HTTP 1.0
According to Dissertation Assistance, in few cases reflect that 301 and 302 are treated similarly in rare cases. The employees of Google confirmed that there are cases when the 301 and 302 are treated similarly. But this is not evident neither proved.
Why is it not acceptable to a larger segment of SEO professionals? I’ll explain it to you. A protocol that is used by the internet is called ‘Hypertext Transfer Protocol’ (HTTP). This protocol dictates a URL on how to work.
There are two versions of HTTP 1.0 and 1.1. The 1.0 referred to moved temporary whereas 1.1 refers to Found. Therefore, the 302 cannot be that much influential on the SEO ranking.
Why does search engine care?
Majority of the time, the behavior of the traffic remains the same. The only impact that it can create is the permanent vs temporary move. But what about the search engine, why they are concerned?
There are several websites, and the war of ranking is constant. The search engines are more concern to provide the appropriate ranking to every website. For example you are running an online store, then some factors that search engine will go through in order to rank your website are, ecommerce website design, traffic, bounce rate, qualitative backlinks, and redirects.
This makes them to entitle majority of websites to be inactive frequently. This is why; Google is more concern with the redirects, as the website once used 301 is considered inactive.
Wrapping it up
The war of website ranking in the SEO is at its peak. The number of websites is constantly increasing, and maintaining your website’s ranking is getting more difficult. In this condition, the appropriate usage of redirects is essential.
The inadequate or wrong use of the redirect can be a turnaround for your website. I hope that you all are clear regarding the difference between 301 and 302.
Both of these redirects are appropriate and effective in their own manner. The usage must be adequate and both of them will provide you similar benefits.
All of this effort is to maintain the website’s position in the race. If it once loses it ranking it is difficult to rebuild its ranking again.
Please inform me if there are any other differences to highlight.
Author’s Bio
Samantha Kaylee is currently working as a Blogger at Crowd Writer who loves to share her thoughts about advancements in Digital Marketing. Students often buy essays at Crowd Writer. Samantha loves to travel and explore different cultures of the world.