{"id":27214,"date":"2019-04-16T06:50:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T14:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=27214"},"modified":"2025-06-23T10:51:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:51:54","slug":"301-redirects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/301-redirects\/","title":{"rendered":"301 Redirects Explained: How They Impact SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\"> Looking to learn everything there is to know about 301 redirects, including how to use them to boost your organic traffic? You\u2019re in the right&nbsp;place.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>301 redirects are pretty simple. They\u2019re used to redirect one webpage to another.<\/p>\n<p>But understanding how they relate to SEO is more complicated.<\/p>\n<p>In this guide, you\u2019ll learn:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-a-301-redirect\">What 301 redirects are<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-do-a-301-redirect\">How to implement them<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#do-301-redirects-affect-seo\">How they affect SEO<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-fix-301-redirect-issues\">How to fix SEO issues caused by 301 redirects<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-use-301-redirects-to-boost-traffic\">How to use 301 redirects to (potentially) boost organic traffic<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let\u2019s start at the&nbsp;top.<\/p>\n<div class=\"hub-link\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Beginner's guide to technical SEO\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/4.svg\"><div class=\"hl-title\">New to technical SEO? Check out&nbsp;our<\/div><div class=\"hl-content\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/technical-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\">Beginner\u2019s guide to technical SEO<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"what-is-a-301-redirect\">What is a 301 redirect?<\/h2>\n<p>A 301 redirect indicates the permanent moving of a web page from one location to another.<\/p>\n<p>The 301 part refers to the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/http-status-codes\/\">HTTP status code<\/a> of the redirected page.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example:<\/strong> <em>blog.ahrefs.com<\/em> redirects to ahrefs.com\/blog<\/p>\n<p>In simple terms, a 301 redirect tells the browser: \u201cThis page has moved permanently. This is the new location and we don\u2019t intend on moving it back.\u201d To which the browser responds: \u201cSure thing! I\u2019ll send the user there right&nbsp;now!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why if you try to visit <em>blog.ahrefs.com<\/em>, it won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll end up at <em>ahrefs.com\/blog<\/em> instead.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-do-a-301-redirect\">How to do a 301 redirect<\/h2>\n<p>There are many ways to do 301 redirects, but the most common method is to edit your site\u2019s .htaccess file.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll find this in your site\u2019s root folder:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"356\" height=\"116\" class=\"wp-image-27184\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/htaccess-web-server.png\" alt=\"htaccess web server\"><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t see the file? That means one of <strong>two<\/strong>&nbsp;things:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>You don\u2019t have a .htaccess file. <\/strong>Create one using Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). Just create a new document and save it as .htaccess. Make sure to remove the standard .txt file extension.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Your site isn\u2019t running on an Apache web server. <\/strong>This is somewhat technical, but there are different types of web servers. Apache, Windows\/IIS, and Nginx are the most common. Only Apache servers use .htaccess.&nbsp;To check that your website runs on Apache, ask your web&nbsp;host.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Here are some snippets of code for adding common types of 301 redirect via .htaccess:<\/p>\n<p><strong>IMPORTANT.<\/strong>&nbsp;These instructions are for Apache web servers only. Read <a href=\"https:\/\/bjornjohansen.no\/nginx-redirect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this<\/a>&nbsp;if your site runs on Nginx, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bowlerhat.co.uk\/301-redirects-for-seo-from-windows-server-iis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this<\/a>&nbsp;if your site runs on Windows\/IIS.<\/p>\n<h3>Redirect an old page to a new&nbsp;page<\/h3>\n<pre class=\"brush: plain; title: ; notranslate\" title> Redirect 301 \/old-page.html \/new-page.html&nbsp;<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"377\" height=\"31\" class=\"wp-image-27164\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect.gif\" alt=\"301 redirect\"><\/p>\n<p>Using WordPress? Remove the need to edit the .htaccess file with the free <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/redirection\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Redirection plugin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It makes adding 301 redirects as simple as&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"462\" height=\"255\" class=\"wp-image-27202\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirections-plugin.png\" alt=\"redirections plugin\"><\/p>\n<h3>Redirect an old domain to a new domain<\/h3>\n<pre class=\"brush: plain; title: ; notranslate\" title> RewriteEngine on\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldsite.com [NC,OR]\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.oldsite.com [NC]\nRewriteRule ^(.*)$ https:\/\/newsite.com\/$1 [L,R=301,NC] <\/pre>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> There are quite a few ways to do this. I am by no means an expert when it comes to Apache servers and htaccess files. This is the code that has always worked for me. Make sure to test this before implementing on your&nbsp;site.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"345\" height=\"35\" class=\"wp-image-27165\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/domain-redirect.gif\" alt=\"domain redirect\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMPORTANT!<\/strong>&nbsp;If <code>RewriteEngine on<\/code> is already in your .htaccess file, do not repeat it. Just copy the rest of the code. It\u2019s also possible to do this in Cpanel, which may be preferable.<\/p>\n<h3>Redirect entire domain from non-www to www (and vice-versa)<\/h3>\n<p>Here\u2019s the non-www to www version:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"brush: plain; title: ; notranslate\" title> RewriteEngine on\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com [NC]\nRewriteRule ^(.*)$ http:\/\/www.example.com\/$1 [L,R=301,NC] <\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"338\" height=\"33\" class=\"wp-image-27171\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/non-www-to-www-redirect.gif\" alt=\"non www to www redirect\"><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the www to non-www version:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"brush: plain; title: ; notranslate\" title> RewriteEngine on\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.example.com [NC]\nRewriteRule ^(.*)$ http:\/\/example.com\/$1 [L,R=301,NC] <\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"308\" height=\"34\" class=\"wp-image-27209\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/www-to-non-www-redirect.gif\" alt=\"www to non www redirect\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMPORTANT! <\/strong>The placement and order of code in your htaccess file matters too. You may experience unwanted effects if multiple instructions are placed in the \u201cwrong\u201d order (e.g., redirect chains, etc.). If you\u2019re planning to implement a lot of 301 redirects in your htaccess file, this is something worth looking into.<\/p>\n<h3>Redirect entire domain from HTTP to&nbsp;HTTPS<\/h3>\n<pre class=\"brush: plain; title: ; notranslate\" title>RewriteEngine On\nRewriteCond %{HTTPS} off\nRewriteRule ^(.*)$ https:\/\/%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]\n<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"341\" height=\"32\" class=\"wp-image-27212\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/https-redirect.gif\" alt=\"https redirect\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMPORTANT!<\/strong>&nbsp;You must have an SSL certificate installed on your website for this to work. Otherwise, you\u2019ll get the cautionary \u201cNot secure\u201d message.<\/p>\n<h3>Redirect entire domain from non-www to www <em>and<\/em>&nbsp;HTTP to&nbsp;HTTPS<\/h3>\n<pre class=\"brush: plain; title: ; notranslate\" title>\nRewriteEngine On\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\\. [NC]\nRewriteRule ^ https:\/\/www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]\nRewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https\nRewriteCond %{HTTPS} off\nRewriteRule ^ https:\/\/%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"389\" height=\"31\" class=\"wp-image-27207\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/nonwww-http-https-redirect.gif\" alt=\"nonwww http https redirect\"><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"do-301-redirects-affect-seo\">Do 301 redirects affect SEO?<\/h2>\n<p>Most SEO professionals focus on the relationship between 301 redirects and PageRank.<\/p>\n<p>Not familiar with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-pagerank\/\">PageRank<\/a>? It\u2019s the formula Google created to judge the \u201cvalue of a page\u201d based on the quantity and quality of its&nbsp;links. Of course, PageRank is far from the only \u201cranking factor,\u201d but it\u2019s generally believed that, on the whole, higher PageRank equates to higher rankings.<\/p>\n<p>Is there evidence for that? Yes, Google (re)<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/methode\/status\/829755916895535104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">confirmed<\/a>&nbsp;PageRank as a ranking signal last&nbsp;year:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">DYK that after 18 years we\u2019re still using PageRank (and 100s of other signals) in ranking?<\/p>\n<p>Wanna know how it works?<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CfOlxGauGF\">https:\/\/t.co\/CfOlxGauGF<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3YJeNbXLml\">pic.twitter.com\/3YJeNbXLml<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Gary \u201c\u9be8\u7406\u201d Illyes (@methode) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/methode\/status\/829755916895535104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 9,&nbsp;2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a clear positive correlation between <a href=\"\/blog\/ahrefs-seo-metrics\/#section9\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-metrics\/#section9\">Ahrefs\u2019 URL Rating<\/a>\u2014which works in a similar way to PageRank\u2014and the amount of organic traffic a page&nbsp;gets:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"1033\" class=\"wp-image-27198\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ur_vs_search_traffic-1.png\" alt=\"Ur vs search traffic 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ur_vs_search_traffic-1.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ur_vs_search_traffic-1-768x881.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Ur_vs_search_traffic-1-370x425.png 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> The reason why I\u2019m talking about URL Rating (UR) and not PageRank is that Google discontinued public PageRank scores in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/google-pagerank\/159112\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016<\/a>. Now there\u2019s no way of knowing how much PageRank a page has. I\u2019m not saying that UR is a PageRank equivalent by any stretch, but it\u2019s the closest comparable metric we&nbsp;have.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>So how does this relate to 301 redirects?<\/p>\n<p>Before 2016, if you used a 301 redirect to redirect one page to another, there was some loss of PageRank along the way. How much? That\u2019s debatable, but 15% seemed to be the general assumption. It\u2019s also the range Matt Cutts, Google\u2019s former Head of Webspam, alluded to in this 2013&nbsp;video:<\/p>\n<div data-mode=\"normal\" data-oembed=\"1\" data-provider=\"youtube\" id=\"arve-youtube-filv4pp-1nw\" style=\"max-width:900px;\" class=\"arve\">\n<div class=\"arve-inner\">\n<div style=\"aspect-ratio:500\/281\" class=\"arve-embed arve-embed--has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"arve-ar\" style=\"padding-top:56.200000%\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<iframe allow=\"accelerometer 'none';autoplay 'none';bluetooth 'none';browsing-topics 'none';camera 'none';clipboard-read 'none';clipboard-write;display-capture 'none';encrypted-media 'none';gamepad 'none';geolocation 'none';gyroscope 'none';hid 'none';identity-credentials-get 'none';idle-detection 'none';keyboard-map 'none';local-fonts;magnetometer 'none';microphone 'none';midi 'none';otp-credentials 'none';payment 'none';picture-in-picture;publickey-credentials-create 'none';publickey-credentials-get 'none';screen-wake-lock 'none';serial 'none';summarizer 'none';sync-xhr;usb 'none';web-share;window-management 'none';xr-spatial-tracking 'none';\" allowfullscreen class=\"arve-iframe fitvidsignore\" credentialless data-arve=\"arve-youtube-filv4pp-1nw\" data-lenis-prevent data-src-no-ap=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Filv4pP-1nw?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"505.8\" loading=\"lazy\" name referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Filv4pP-1nw?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" title width=\"900\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> Matt didn\u2019t actually say that 301 redirects lost 15% of PageRank in that video. That was just the figure he used as an example. However, it\u2019s the number that most SEO professionals seemed to run with for quite a few years. That\u2019s likely because 15% also relates to the \u201cdamping factor\u201d in the <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.google.com\/patent\/US6285999B1\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">original PageRank patent<\/a>. <\/div>\n<p>For argument\u2019s sake, let\u2019s assume that the number was&nbsp;15%.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how that would play&nbsp;out:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Simple 301 redirect: <\/strong><em>domain.com\/page-1 \u2192 domain.com\/page-2<\/em>&nbsp;= <strong>15% loss of PageRank<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><strong>301 redirect chain: <\/strong><em>domain.com\/page-1 \u2192 domain.com\/page-2<\/em>&nbsp;<em>\u2192 domain.com\/page-3 \u2192 domain.com\/page-4 <\/em>=<strong>&nbsp;38% loss of PageRank!<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>However, Google changed its <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/methode\/status\/757923179641839616\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">official stance<\/a>&nbsp;on this matter in&nbsp;2016:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">30x redirects don\u2019t lose PageRank anymore.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Gary \u201c\u9be8\u7406\u201d Illyes (@methode) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/methode\/status\/757923179641839616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 26,&nbsp;2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So, in 2019, if you redirect <em>domain.com\/page1<\/em>&nbsp;to <em>domain.com\/page2<\/em>, the redirected page should have just as much \u201cpower\u201d as the original page.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a BIG deal, and it\u2019s part of the reason 301 redirects can be so useful for boosting organic traffic. <em>(More on that&nbsp;later!)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>But 301 redirects can cause plenty of other SEO-related issues that don\u2019t often get talked about.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-fix-301-redirect-issues\">How to fix existing 301 redirect issues on your&nbsp;site<\/h2>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to find and fix existing issues related to 301 redirects.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Make sure the HTTP version of your site redirects to&nbsp;HTTPS<\/h3>\n<p>Every website should use&nbsp;HTTPS.<\/p>\n<p>Not only does it add an extra layer of security for your visitors, but <a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2014\/08\/https-as-ranking-signal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google uses HTTPS as a ranking signal<\/a>. Combine that with the fact that SSL certificates are available for free via <a href=\"https:\/\/letsencrypt.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Let\u2019s Encrypt<\/a>&nbsp;and there really is no excuse not to use HTTPS in&nbsp;2019.<\/p>\n<p>But having an SSL certificate is only half the battle\u2026<\/p>\n<p>You also need to make sure that people actually visit the HTTPS version of your site, which means using a 301 redirect between the HTTP and HTTPS version.<\/p>\n<p>To check that this redirect is in place, go to your homepage and look at the URL bar. You should see http<strong>s<\/strong>:\/\/[www].yourwebsite.com\/,&nbsp;plus a lock&nbsp;icon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"435\" height=\"34\" class=\"wp-image-27199\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/secure-site.png\" alt=\"secure site\"><\/p>\n<p>Change this to http:\/\/ (not http<strong>s<\/strong>:\/\/) then hit enter. You should be redirected to the HTTPS version automatically.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"433\" height=\"32\" class=\"wp-image-27182\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/secure-redirect.gif\" alt=\"secure redirect\"><\/p>\n<p>If this happens, then things should be good for the most part. But there can still be issues, like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>HTTP to HTTPS redirect isn\u2019t implemented across all pages on your site (e.g., subdomains).<\/li>\n<li>HTTPS to HTTP redirects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To be sure there are no such issues, run a crawl with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div data-mode=\"normal\" data-oembed=\"1\" data-provider=\"youtube\" id=\"arve-youtube-ljinwqfgyve\" style=\"max-width:900px;\" class=\"arve\">\n<div class=\"arve-inner\">\n<div style=\"aspect-ratio:500\/281\" class=\"arve-embed arve-embed--has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"arve-ar\" style=\"padding-top:56.200000%\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<iframe allow=\"accelerometer 'none';autoplay 'none';bluetooth 'none';browsing-topics 'none';camera 'none';clipboard-read 'none';clipboard-write;display-capture 'none';encrypted-media 'none';gamepad 'none';geolocation 'none';gyroscope 'none';hid 'none';identity-credentials-get 'none';idle-detection 'none';keyboard-map 'none';local-fonts;magnetometer 'none';microphone 'none';midi 'none';otp-credentials 'none';payment 'none';picture-in-picture;publickey-credentials-create 'none';publickey-credentials-get 'none';screen-wake-lock 'none';serial 'none';summarizer 'none';sync-xhr;usb 'none';web-share;window-management 'none';xr-spatial-tracking 'none';\" allowfullscreen class=\"arve-iframe fitvidsignore\" credentialless data-arve=\"arve-youtube-ljinwqfgyve\" data-lenis-prevent data-src-no-ap=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/LjinWqfGyVE?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"505.8\" loading=\"lazy\" name referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/LjinWqfGyVE?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" title width=\"900\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Head to the <strong>Internal pages<\/strong>&nbsp;report and look for these issues:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"307\" height=\"106\" class=\"wp-image-27174\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/http-https-redirect-issues-site-audit.png\" alt=\"http https redirect issues site audit\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTE. <\/strong>If you see one page with an HTTP to HTTPS warning, and it\u2019s merely the HTTP version of the page from which the crawl began, then this isn\u2019t an&nbsp;issue.<\/p>\n<p>Fix these issues by applying the proper 301 redirects from the HTTP to HTTPS version(s) of the affected page(s).<\/p>\n<h3>2. Remove pages with 301 status codes from your sitemap<\/h3>\n<p>Google looks to sitemaps to understand which pages to crawl and&nbsp;index.<\/p>\n<p>Because pages with 301 status codes no longer technically exist, there\u2019s no point asking Google to crawl them. If such pages remain in your sitemap, Google may continue to revisit them each time they re-crawl your website. That\u2019s unnecessary and wastes <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/crawl-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">crawl budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s one way to find such&nbsp;pages:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Find your sitemap URL (this is usually <em>yourdomain.com\/sitemap.xml<\/em>\u2026 but not always)<\/li>\n<li>Use <a href=\"http:\/\/convertcsv.com\/url-extractor.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this tool<\/a>&nbsp;to download all the&nbsp;URLs.<\/li>\n<li>Paste that list of URLs into <a href=\"https:\/\/httpstatus.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this free HTTP status code checker<\/a>&nbsp;(note: limited to 100 URLs at a&nbsp;time)<\/li>\n<li>Filter for pages with 301 status codes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Looking for a quicker and easier method? Use <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit<\/a>&nbsp;to crawl your website, then head to the <strong>Overview<\/strong>&nbsp;report and look for \u201c3XX redirect in sitemap\u201d errors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"282\" height=\"78\" class=\"wp-image-27194\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/3xx-in-sitemap-error.png\" alt=\"3xx in sitemap error\"><\/p>\n<p>Clicking this reveals all the pages with 301 status codes in your sitemap(s).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"923\" height=\"93\" class=\"wp-image-27183\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-in-sitemap.png\" alt=\"301 redirect in sitemap\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-in-sitemap.png 923w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-in-sitemap-768x77.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-in-sitemap-680x69.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 923px) 100vw, 923px\"><\/p>\n<p>Remove these <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-friendly-urls\/\">URLs<\/a> from your sitemap and replace with the final redirect URL (if it\u2019s not already in&nbsp;there).<\/p>\n<h3>3. Fix redirect chains<\/h3>\n<p>Redirect chains occur when there is a series of two or more redirects between the initial URL and destination URL.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/6033086?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what Google says<\/a>&nbsp;about these:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">While <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/googlebot\/\">Googlebot<\/a> and browsers can follow a \u201cchain\u201d of multiple redirects (e.g., Page 1 &gt; Page 2 &gt; Page 3), <strong>we advise redirecting to the final destination<\/strong>. If this is not possible, keep the number of redirects in the chain low, ideally no more than 3 and fewer than&nbsp;5.<\/div><\/blockquote>\n<p>Redirect chains serve no other purpose than to damage user experience and slow things down, so you should avoid them where possible.<\/p>\n<p>You can check for redirect chains on up to 100 URLs using <a href=\"https:\/\/httpstatus.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this HTTP status code checker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Look for pages with two or more redirects.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"698\" height=\"121\" class=\"wp-image-27186\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirects-http-code-checker.png\" alt=\"redirects http code checker\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirects-http-code-checker.png 698w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirects-http-code-checker-680x118.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\"><\/p>\n<p>To check more than 100 pages in one go, check the <strong>Internal pages<\/strong>&nbsp;report in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit<\/a>&nbsp;for \u201cRedirect chain\u201d errors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"226\" height=\"72\" class=\"wp-image-27168\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirect-chain-site-audit.png\" alt=\"redirect chain site audit\"><\/p>\n<p>Clicking this will reveal all the URLs in the chain, including the final destination page.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"222\" class=\"wp-image-27201\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirect-chain-report-site-audit.png\" alt=\"redirect chain report site audit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirect-chain-report-site-audit.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirect-chain-report-site-audit-768x189.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirect-chain-report-site-audit-680x168.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p>There are two ways to fix these errors;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Replace the redirect chain with a single 301 redirect.<\/strong>&nbsp;Instead of <em>Page 1 &gt; Page 2 &gt; Page 3 &gt; Page 4<\/em>, the redirect becomes <em>Page 1 &gt; Page 4<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Replace internal links to redirected pages with direct links to the final URL<\/strong>. This prevents Google and other bots from crawling the redirect chains. More importantly, it prevents <em>actual<\/em>&nbsp;humans (you know, the type who *might* buy something from your website) from having to deal with the slowness of multiple redirects when they click a&nbsp;link.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Where practical, the second solution is the best option.<\/p>\n<p>To do that, sort the list of redirect chains by the \u201cNo. of inlinks\u201d column from high to low. Then click on the number of inlinks to see all internal links to the redirected page.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27265\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/internal-links-to-redirects-2.jpg\" alt width=\"900\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/internal-links-to-redirects-2.jpg 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/internal-links-to-redirects-2-768x323.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/internal-links-to-redirects-2-680x286.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p>Replace the internal links on the affected pages with the direct links to the final destination URL.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Fix redirect loops<\/h3>\n<p>Redirect loops occur when a URL redirects back to one of the other URLs in the chain. This creates an infinite loop of redirects that can confuse and trap both search engines and users&nbsp;alike.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>Page 1 &gt; Page 2 &gt; Page 3 &gt; <\/em><strong>Page 2<\/strong><em>&nbsp;&gt; Page 3 &gt; <\/em><strong>Page 2<\/strong><em>&nbsp;&gt; Page&nbsp;3&nbsp;[\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>These are user-experience killers because they usually result in a response like this from the browser:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"369\" height=\"256\" class=\"wp-image-27208\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/too-many-redirects.png\" alt=\"too many redirects\"><\/p>\n<p>You can find redirect loop errors in batches of 100 using that same HTTP status code checker we used before. Look for \u201cExceeded maximum number of redirects\u201d errors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"485\" height=\"208\" class=\"wp-image-27203\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/http-status-code-checker-too-many-redirects.png\" alt=\"http status code checker too many redirects\"><\/p>\n<p>For more than 100 pages, check the <strong>Internal pages <\/strong>report in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit<\/a>&nbsp;for \u201cRedirect loop\u201d errors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"228\" height=\"73\" class=\"wp-image-27196\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/redirect-loop-error-site-audit.png\" alt=\"redirect loop error site audit\"><\/p>\n<p>Click this to reveal all pages with redirect loop issues, then fix each issue in one of two&nbsp;ways:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>If the URL is not supposed to redirect,<\/strong>&nbsp;change its HTTP response code to&nbsp;200.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If the URL is&nbsp;supposed to redirect<\/strong>, fix the final destination URL and remove the loop. Alternatively, remove or replace all inlinks to the redirecting URL.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>5. Fix broken redirects<\/h3>\n<p>Broken redirects are pages that redirect to a dead page (i.e., one that returns a 4XX or 5XX HTTP response code).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>Page 1 (301) &gt; Page 2 (404)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>These are bad because neither visitors nor search engine bots can access the final URLs. Because of that, most visitors will leave your website, and most search engines will abandon the&nbsp;crawl.<\/p>\n<p>You can check for these errors in batches of 100 using an HTTP status code checker.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"443\" height=\"75\" class=\"wp-image-27169\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-404.png\" alt=\"301 404\"><\/p>\n<p>To check more pages, look for \u201cBroken redirect\u201d errors in the <strong>Internal pages <\/strong>report in Ahrefs\u2019 Site&nbsp;Audit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"232\" height=\"69\" class=\"wp-image-27180\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/broken-redirect-error.png\" alt=\"broken redirect error\"><\/p>\n<p>Fix these errors by either:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Reinstating the dead page (if deleted accidentally)<\/li>\n<li>Removing the inlinks to the redirected URL.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>6. Redirect 404&nbsp;pages<\/h3>\n<p>Pages that return a 404 status are dead, and so the browser returns a page like&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"619\" class=\"wp-image-27197\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-error.png\" alt=\"404 error\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-error.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-error-768x528.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-error-618x425.png 618w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p>Now, there are times when a user seeing this page makes sense. If someone types the wrong URL into their browser, for example, then the error page lets them know that something is wrong. You can see an example of that above\u2014it makes total sense to return a 404 page for this&nbsp;URL.<\/p>\n<p>Having said that, pages with 404 status codes are a problem when:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>They\u2019re crawlable<\/strong>. Crawlable <em>usually<\/em>&nbsp;equates to clickable. And if they\u2019re clickable, some users are going to end up clicking <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/internal-links-for-seo\/\">internal links<\/a>&nbsp;on your site only to see a dead page. That\u2019s not great for user experience.<\/li>\n<li><strong>They have backlinks<\/strong>. Because 404 pages aren\u2019t accessible, any backlinks that point to them are effectively wasted.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>To tackle that first issue, check the <strong>Internal links<\/strong>&nbsp;report in Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit for \u201c404 page\u201d errors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"229\" height=\"68\" class=\"wp-image-27192\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-page-error-site-audit.png\" alt=\"404 page error site audit\"><\/p>\n<p>Click this to see all 404 pages that were found during the&nbsp;crawl.<\/p>\n<p>Next, hit the \u201cManage columns\u201d button, add the \u201cNo. of dofollow backlinks\u201d column, hit \u201cApply,\u201d then sort by this column from high to&nbsp;low.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"122\" class=\"wp-image-27205\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-backlinks-site-audit.png\" alt=\"404 backlinks site audit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-backlinks-site-audit.png 702w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/404-backlinks-site-audit-680x118.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\"><\/p>\n<p>Check the <strong>Backlinks<\/strong>&nbsp;report in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Ahrefs Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;for any pages with one or more \u201cdofollow\u201d backlinks.&nbsp;There\u2019s a chance these links may be valuable. If they are, you\u2019ll want to redirect (301) that page to another relevant resource on your website.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">IMPORTANT<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>Redirecting 404 pages to <strong>somewhere relevant <\/strong>is key. Google treats irrelevant 301 redirects as soft 404\u2019s, so there\u2019s no real advantage of redirecting unless you\u2019re doing so to a similar and relevant page.<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s John Mueller explains more in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/nIDZmac_rMI?t=76\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div data-mode=\"normal\" data-oembed=\"1\" data-provider=\"youtube\" id=\"arve-youtube-nidzmac_rmi\" style=\"max-width:900px;\" class=\"arve\">\n<div class=\"arve-inner\">\n<div style=\"aspect-ratio:500\/281\" class=\"arve-embed arve-embed--has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"arve-ar\" style=\"padding-top:56.200000%\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<iframe allow=\"accelerometer 'none';autoplay 'none';bluetooth 'none';browsing-topics 'none';camera 'none';clipboard-read 'none';clipboard-write;display-capture 'none';encrypted-media 'none';gamepad 'none';geolocation 'none';gyroscope 'none';hid 'none';identity-credentials-get 'none';idle-detection 'none';keyboard-map 'none';local-fonts;magnetometer 'none';microphone 'none';midi 'none';otp-credentials 'none';payment 'none';picture-in-picture;publickey-credentials-create 'none';publickey-credentials-get 'none';screen-wake-lock 'none';serial 'none';summarizer 'none';sync-xhr;usb 'none';web-share;window-management 'none';xr-spatial-tracking 'none';\" allowfullscreen class=\"arve-iframe fitvidsignore\" credentialless data-arve=\"arve-youtube-nidzmac_rmi\" data-lenis-prevent data-src-no-ap=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/nIDZmac_rMI?start=76&amp;feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"505.8\" loading=\"lazy\" name referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/nIDZmac_rMI?start=76&amp;feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" title width=\"900\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you don\u2019t have a similar or relevant page, and you still have a 404 page with lots of <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/high-quality-backlinks\/\">high-quality backlinks<\/a> then, honestly, it may be worth republishing the content that used to exist at that location.<\/p>\n<p>Think of it like&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n<p>If the dead page was valuable enough to attract high-quality backlinks in the first place, then it\u2019s worth questioning why it no longer exists. I mean, it\u2019s clearly a topic people are interested in.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>For pages <strong>without<\/strong>&nbsp;dofollow backlinks, fix them by either:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Reinstating the dead page at the given&nbsp;URL<\/li>\n<li>Redirecting (301) the dead page to another <strong>relevant<\/strong>&nbsp;page<\/li>\n<li>Removing or replacing all internal links to the dead&nbsp;page<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>IMPORTANT<\/strong>. If you opt for #3, make sure that you not only replace the internal links but also the anchor text&nbsp;and surrounding text where necessary.<\/p>\n<h3>7. Replace 302 redirects and meta refresh redirects with&nbsp;301s<\/h3>\n<p>Never use 302 redirects or meta refresh redirects for permanent redirects.<\/p>\n<p>302 redirects&nbsp;are for temporary moves, and Google <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/79812?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recommends<\/a>&nbsp;not to use meta refresh redirects at all if possible. So, if you have either of these on your site, you should aim to either remove them or replace with 301 redirects.<\/p>\n<p>To see pages with these HTTP status codes, check the <strong>Internal pages<\/strong>&nbsp;report in Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit for \u201cMeta refresh redirect\u201d and \u201c302 redirect\u201d issues.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"264\" height=\"106\" class=\"wp-image-27173\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/meta-refresh-302-issues.png\" alt=\"meta refresh 302 issues\"><\/p>\n<p>Luckily, both these issues can be fixed in the same&nbsp;way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>If the redirect is&nbsp;permanent,<\/strong>&nbsp;use a 301 instead.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If the redirect isn\u2019t&nbsp;permanent<\/strong>, remove the redirect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You should also aim to remove or replace internal links to redirected pages, especially if they\u2019re likely to confuse users who click on&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<h3>8. Look for redirected (301) pages that get organic traffic<\/h3>\n<p>Pages with HTTP 301 status codes shouldn\u2019t get organic traffic because they shouldn\u2019t be in Google\u2019s index. If such pages are getting traffic, it means that Google hasn\u2019t yet seen the redirect.<\/p>\n<p>To check for 3XX pages with traffic, check the <strong>Overview<\/strong>&nbsp;report in Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit for \u201c3XX page receives organic traffic\u201d errors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"348\" height=\"73\" class=\"wp-image-27185\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/3xx-page-with-traffic-site-audit.png\" alt=\"3xx page with traffic site audit\"><\/p>\n<p>If you got your list of 3XX pages from elsewhere (e.g., an HTTP status code checker), then paste them into <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/batch-analysis\">Ahrefs\u2019 Batch Analysis tool<\/a>&nbsp;in batches of up to 200 to see page-level organic traffic.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"497\" height=\"121\" class=\"wp-image-27191\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/batch-analysis-traffic.png\" alt=\"batch analysis traffic\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTE.<\/strong> You could also check organic traffic in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/web-analytics\">Ahrefs\u2019 Web Analytics<\/a> or Google Search Console.<\/p>\n<p>Now, if you only recently added the 301 redirect, this likely isn\u2019t much of an issue. Google should see it during their next crawl, after which they should deindex the&nbsp;page.<\/p>\n<p>To speed up that process, paste the URL into the <strong>URL Inspection tool<\/strong>&nbsp;in <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Search Console<\/a>, then hit \u201cRequest indexing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"517\" height=\"183\" class=\"wp-image-27211\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/request-indexing.png\" alt=\"request indexing\"><\/p>\n<p>You should also remove these pages from your sitemap (see #2) and re-submit via Google &nbsp;Search Console.<\/p>\n<h3>9. Look for \u201cbad\u201d external 301s<\/h3>\n<p>Most websites link out to relevant third-party sites and resources.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s fine\u2026 until the page to which to externally link gets redirected elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>For example, imagine that you link out to a useful resource. Twelve months later, that domain expires and gets picked up by an expired domain hunter who deletes the resource and redirects to their \u201cmoney\u201d site. Now you\u2019re unintentionally linking to something irrelevant (and potentially even harmful) to your visitors.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, it\u2019s important to check for \u201cbad\u201d external 301\u2019s from time to&nbsp;time.<\/p>\n<p>To do this, head to the <strong>External pages<\/strong>&nbsp;report in Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit and look for \u201cExternal 3XX redirect\u201d warnings.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"267\" height=\"72\" class=\"wp-image-27175\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/external-3xx-redirect.png\" alt=\"external 3xx redirect\"><\/p>\n<p>Click this to see a list of all the redirected external links, plus the final destination URL.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">Seeing a lot of&nbsp;pages?<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>Because nofollowed external links are often things like blog comments, you can remove these to give a cleaner list. Just add a \u201cNo. of inlinks dofollow &gt; 0\u201d filter to the report.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"362\" class=\"wp-image-27176\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bad-external-301s-prioritize.png\" alt=\"bad external 301s prioritize\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bad-external-301s-prioritize.png 810w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bad-external-301s-prioritize-768x343.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bad-external-301s-prioritize-680x304.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\"><\/p>\n<p>This should help to prioritize things.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Next, skim the report looking at the <em>URL<\/em>&nbsp;and <em>Redirect URL<\/em>&nbsp;columns. Look for redirects that don\u2019t seem right. In other words, ignore things like HTTP to HTTPS redirects, and <em>blog.domain.com\/page<\/em>&nbsp;to<em>&nbsp;domain.com\/blog\/page<\/em>&nbsp;redirects. Look for redirects to different sites or&nbsp;pages.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s an example I found when crawling <em>Backlinko<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"835\" height=\"67\" class=\"wp-image-27181\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-external-irrelevant.png\" alt=\"301 redirect external irrelevant\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-external-irrelevant.png 835w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-external-irrelevant-768x62.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-external-irrelevant-680x55.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 835px) 100vw, 835px\"><\/p>\n<p>The issue here isn\u2019t so much that the redirect points to another website. Those who are familiar with Neil Patel will know that he merged <em>blog.kissmetrics.com<\/em>&nbsp;with <em>neilpatel.com<\/em>&nbsp;earlier this&nbsp;year.<\/p>\n<p>No, the issue is that the redirected page is a completely different article.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Original article title: <\/strong>Using the Magic of Qualitative Data to Increase SaaS Conversions<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Redirected article title:<\/strong>&nbsp;How Understanding Your Customer Will Help You Create Copy That&nbsp;Sells<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In these cases, it\u2019s best to remove the internal link(s) to the redirected page.<\/p>\n<p>To do this, just hit the number in the \u201cNo. of inlinks\u201d column to see every page with internal links to the redirected page.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"288\" class=\"wp-image-27162\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/inlinks.png\" alt=\"inlinks\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/inlinks.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/inlinks-768x246.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/inlinks-680x218.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p>Go into your CMS and remove them.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-to-use-301-redirects-to-boost-traffic\">How to use 301 redirects to boost your organic traffic<\/h2>\n<p>By this stage, your website should be free of any SEO-hindering issues related to 301 redirects.<\/p>\n<p>Now it\u2019s time to get serious and talk about how we can use the power of redirects to massively boost organic traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Here are <strong>two<\/strong>&nbsp;methods for doing&nbsp;that.<\/p>\n<h3>The Cocktail Technique<\/h3>\n<p>You have a glass of Coke. <em>Mmm<\/em>. You have a glass of rum. <em>Tasty<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>Both of those are great drinks in their own right. Combine them, however, and you take things to another level.<em>&nbsp;Hello, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rum_and_Coke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cuba Libre<\/a>! <\/em><\/p>\n<p>So how does this relate to 301 redirects?<\/p>\n<p>Think of both these drinks as <strong>topically-related<\/strong>&nbsp;pages on your website. They\u2019re each performing okay. They have a few decent backlinks. They get <em>some<\/em>&nbsp;organic traffic. Not too bad at all. But why not merge and consolidate those two pages into one to make something even better?<\/p>\n<p>In doing so, chances are that we could transform two average-performing pages into one delicious cocktail of a page that performs <em>way<\/em>&nbsp;better!<\/p>\n<p>We recently did this with two of our posts on the Ahrefs blog:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/skyscraper-technique\/<\/li>\n<li>https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/skyscraper-technique-fail\/<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Both these articles were getting old, so we decided to merge them into <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/skyscraper-technique\/\">one new guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We then republished at <em>ahrefs.com\/blog\/skyscraper-technique\/ <\/em>and redirected the other article to&nbsp;that.<\/p>\n<p>The results speak for themselves:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"713\" height=\"256\" class=\"wp-image-27178\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect.png\" alt=\"301 redirect\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect.png 713w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/301-redirect-680x244.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 713px) 100vw, 713px\"><\/p>\n<p>So why does this&nbsp;work?<\/p>\n<p>Two reasons:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Consolidation of \u201cauthority\u201d: <\/strong>Remember how 301 redirects no longer \u201cleak\u201d PageRank? By redirecting one of these articles to the other, we were able to merge the \u201cauthority\u201d of both pages into one. Of course, this doesn\u2019t work if the pages are unrelated because Google treats such redirects as soft 404\u2019s. But because these two pages are similar, this worked a&nbsp;treat.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Better content:<\/strong>&nbsp;Both of the articles we had were of decent quality. They were just starting to get a little outdated. By taking the best of both posts and merging them, we created a substantially better piece of content that, in our eyes, deserves more traffic.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Now, the only question that remains is how to replicate this strategy, right?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the process.<\/p>\n<h4>Step 1. Look for keyword cannibalization issues (with backlinks)<\/h4>\n<p>Keyword cannibalization is when two or more pages target and rank for the same keyword(s). Finding such issues is a good way to identify opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>So, first things first, make a copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1KnXTPtbIq9EZxknJgHlyW5O4_UljEhBgQZYwQZAaPxo\/copy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this Google Sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Next, paste your site into <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Ahrefs\u2019 Site Explorer<\/a>, head to the <strong>Top Pages<\/strong>&nbsp;report, and export it to&nbsp;CSV.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"863\" height=\"513\" class=\"wp-image-27172\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/top-pages-report.png\" alt=\"top pages report\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/top-pages-report.png 863w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/top-pages-report-768x457.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/top-pages-report-680x404.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px\"><\/p>\n<p>Import the CSV into the first tab of the Google Sheet.<\/p>\n<p>To do that, Go to <em>File &gt; Import\u2026 &gt; Upload &gt; Select the CSV &gt; Choose \u201cAppend to current sheet\u201d when&nbsp;asked<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s it. Go to the \u201cResults\u201d tab and you should have some refined results.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"261\" class=\"wp-image-27188\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/results.png\" alt=\"results\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/results.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/results-768x223.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/results-680x197.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<h4>Step 2. Find relevant opportunities<\/h4>\n<p>Next up, you need to eyeball the results sheet for potential redirection opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a good example from the Hubspot blog:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"297\" class=\"wp-image-27179\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/hubspot-1.png\" alt=\"hubspot 1\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"430\" height=\"209\" class=\"wp-image-27170\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/hubspot-2.png\" alt=\"hubspot 2\"><\/p>\n<p>These two pages rank in positions #5 and #6 respectively for \u201cuser generated content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both of&nbsp;them:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Are topically <em>very<\/em>&nbsp;similar<\/li>\n<li>Have plenty of backlinks from unique websites (467 referring domains combined!)<\/li>\n<li>Get a bit of organic traffic<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>So let\u2019s take a look at top-ranking pages for \u201cuser generated content\u201d in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/keywords-explorer\">Ahrefs\u2019 Keywords Explorer:<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"422\" class=\"wp-image-27200\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/user-generated-content-serp-overview-ahrefs.png\" alt=\"user generated content serp overview ahrefs\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/user-generated-content-serp-overview-ahrefs.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/user-generated-content-serp-overview-ahrefs-768x360.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/user-generated-content-serp-overview-ahrefs-680x319.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p>Two things stand out about the current top-ranking page:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>It gets almost 2x the traffic of the two posts from Hubspot combined!<\/li>\n<li>It has links 192 referring domains\u2026 less than half of the 467 referring domains to Hubspot\u2019s two&nbsp;posts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>So if Hubspot were to merge these two posts into one, and consolidate all that delicious \u201clink juice,\u201d then I\u2019d say they\u2019d have a good chance at claiming the number one spot. This could potentially 2x their traffic!<\/p>\n<h4>Step 3. Rewrite and merge the&nbsp;pages<\/h4>\n<p>Now it\u2019s time to take the best things about each page and combine them into&nbsp;one.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if we were doing this for the aforementioned Hubspot articles, we\u2019d probably keep the section about \u201cHow to Run Your Own User Generated Content Campaign\u201d from one&nbsp;post:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"659\" height=\"303\" class=\"wp-image-27166\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/section-of-article-1.png\" alt=\"section of article 1\"><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 and keep the part explaining \u201cWhy User-Generated Content?\u201d from the&nbsp;other:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"658\" height=\"148\" class=\"wp-image-27161\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/section-of-article-2.png\" alt=\"section of article 2\"><\/p>\n<p>To keep the relevance of the new page as high as possible, and mitigate the risk that Google will treat our 301 as a soft 404, we could also check the <strong>Anchors<\/strong>&nbsp;report in Site Explorer for each&nbsp;page:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"534\" height=\"422\" class=\"wp-image-27177\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/anchors-report-ahrefs-hubspot.png\" alt=\"anchors report ahrefs hubspot\"><\/p>\n<p>This gives some insight into why people linked to the pages in the first&nbsp;place.<\/p>\n<p>For example, I can see that a fair few people are quoting statistics when linking to this page, so it may be worth keeping those stats in our revamped post.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">PRO TIP<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>You should also take the rewriting\/merging of two pages as an opportunity to better serve search intent and give searchers what they\u2019re looking for. If there are a lot of top 10 lists ranking for the target keyword, make your new revamped post a top 10 list. If there are a lot of how-to guides, well\u2026 you get the&nbsp;idea!<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTE. <\/strong>That has nothing to do with 301 redirects, but it\u2019s worth doing if you want to maximize the ROI of your efforts.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>Step 4. Publish your revamped page and implement the 301 redirect(s)<\/h4>\n<p>Now it\u2019s finally time to publish your revamped post\/page.<\/p>\n<p>If either of the old URLs is a good match for your new post, then feel free to republish at the same URL. You can then delete the other post\/page and add a 301 redirect to the new&nbsp;post.<\/p>\n<p>You may recall that\u2019s what we did with our<em>&nbsp;skyscraper technique<\/em>&nbsp;post. We reused the \/skyscraper-technique\/ URL.<\/p>\n<p>If neither of the old URLs is a good match for your new post\/page, then it\u2019s also perfectly fine to 301 redirect <strong>both<\/strong>&nbsp;pages to a totally new&nbsp;URL.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if we were to merge those two Hubspot posts into this&nbsp;guide:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"424\" height=\"299\" class=\"wp-image-27163\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/ugc-hubspot-mockup.png\" alt=\"ugc hubspot mockup\"><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 then neither of the two old URLs would really fit the&nbsp;bill.<\/p>\n<p>It would be better to publish at something like blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/user-generated-content\/<\/p>\n<p>So, we could do that, then 301 redirect the other two pages to that URL. Simple.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">TIP<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>Looking to take this idea even further? Do a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/content-audit\/\">content audit<\/a>&nbsp;to find pages with no organic traffic or rankings that still have backlinks.<\/p>\n<p>If these pages aren\u2019t important to your business, delete and redirect them to a <strong>relevant<\/strong>&nbsp;page that does matter.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h3>The Merger Method<\/h3>\n<p>Here\u2019s what happened to one site\u2019s organic traffic after using&nbsp;the merger method:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"711\" height=\"259\" class=\"wp-image-27189\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/one-year-traffic-increase.png\" alt=\"one year traffic increase\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/one-year-traffic-increase.png 711w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/one-year-traffic-increase-680x248.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 711px) 100vw, 711px\"><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a<strong>&nbsp;~116% traffic increase <\/strong>in 12 months!<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the process in a nutshell:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Buy another business or website in your industry.<\/li>\n<li>Merge their site with yours using 301 redirects.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Backlinko\u2019s Brian Dean did this last year. He bought another <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-blogs\/\">SEO blog<\/a>\u2014<em>Point Blank SEO<\/em>\u2014and redirected it to Backlinko. In fact, it was he who used this method to achieve the results you see in the screenshot above.<\/p>\n<p>But before you start buying every website you can get your hands on, understand this:<\/p>\n<p>Having success with this method isn\u2019t as simple as just buying any old website and using 301s to redirect <strong>all<\/strong>&nbsp;pages to your homepage. That\u2019s the lazy approach, and in 2019, it\u2019s not a good idea. You also need to implement 301 redirects on a page-by-page basis.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to do it, step-by-step:<\/p>\n<h4>1. Re-home and redirect content<\/h4>\n<p>The biggest traffic gains are likely to come from re-homing and redirecting content.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Dean did this with some of the posts on <em>pointblankseo.com<\/em>, including Jon\u2019s infamous list of link building strategies.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"440\" height=\"32\" class=\"wp-image-27187\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/pointblankseo-redirect.gif\" alt=\"pointblankseo redirect\"><\/p>\n<p>You know, the one with this backlink profile:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"615\" height=\"162\" class=\"wp-image-27167\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/pointblankseo-link-building-strategies-backlink-profile.png\" alt=\"pointblankseo link building strategies backlink profile\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>This original URL was: <\/strong><em>pointblankseo.com\/link-building-strategies<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The new (redirected) URL is:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>backlinko.com\/link-building-strategies<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Because Brian moved the post from the old domain to the new with a 301 redirect, all of those links now effectively point to that same page on <em>backlinko.com <\/em>instead. The page has effectively just moved to a new&nbsp;home.<\/p>\n<p>The re-homing and redirecting of content is the best option when all of these&nbsp;apply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The content has organic traffic<\/li>\n<li>The topic is relevant to your business<\/li>\n<li>The content is high-quality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that you can combat that final point but updating or rewriting the content after moving and redirecting it. Brian did this with that list of link building strategies, which hadn\u2019t been updated since around 2012.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"554\" class=\"wp-image-27190\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/old-post.jpg\" alt=\"old post\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/old-post.jpg 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/old-post-768x473.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/old-post-680x419.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"682\" class=\"wp-image-27204\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-version.png\" alt=\"new version\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-version.png 900w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-version-768x582.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-version-561x425.png 561w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/p>\n<h4>2. Delete and redirect to a different page<\/h4>\n<p>There\u2019s no point keeping or re-homing pages&nbsp;that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have little or no organic traffic potential.<\/li>\n<li>Are duplicates of topics you\u2019ve already covered<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For example, there\u2019s no point keeping the <em>about us <\/em>page from the website you\u2019re merging because then you\u2019ll have two about us pages\u2026 which makes no sense. This is also true of other pages which target the same keywords as existing pages on your website.<\/p>\n<p>Re-homing these will just lead to <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/keyword-cannibalization\/\">keyword cannibalization<\/a>&nbsp;issues.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, if pages have little or no traffic potential, then you may as well get rid of them and redirect elsewhere. This is what Brian did with quite a few posts on <em>pointblankseo.com<\/em>, such as this post about outreach platforms:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"681\" height=\"488\" class=\"wp-image-27210\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/outreach-platforms-point-blank.png\" alt=\"outreach platforms point blank\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/outreach-platforms-point-blank.png 681w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/outreach-platforms-point-blank-593x425.png 593w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px\"><\/p>\n<p>That post no longer exists. Brian redirected it to his blog post about <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/link-building-tools\/\">link building tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This original URL was: <\/strong><em>pointblankseo.com\/outreach-platforms<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The new (redirected) URL is:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>backlinko.com\/link-building-tools<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He did this because the keyword \u201coutreach platforms\u201d has no search volume and no traffic potential. It\u2019s not a topic worth targeting.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"340\" height=\"69\" class=\"wp-image-27213\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/outreach-platforms-keywords-explorer.png\" alt=\"outreach platforms keywords explorer\"><\/p>\n<p>So it made more sense to redirect this post to another relevant post <strong>with<\/strong>&nbsp;traffic potential.<\/p>\n<h4>3. Delete and redirect to your homepage<\/h4>\n<p>If there\u2019s nowhere relevant to redirect pages, and it doesn\u2019t make sense to move and re-home them, then the last resort is to redirect them to your homepage.<\/p>\n<p>Brian did this with most of the pages on <em>pointblankseo.com<\/em>, such as this ego-bait guide:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"687\" height=\"406\" class=\"wp-image-27195\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/pointblankseo-egobait-guide.png\" alt=\"pointblankseo egobait guide\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/pointblankseo-egobait-guide.png 687w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/pointblankseo-egobait-guide-680x402.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 687px) 100vw, 687px\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>This original URL was: <\/strong><em>pointblankseo.com\/egobait-guide<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The new (redirected) URL is:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>backlinko.com\/blog<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Why is this a last resort? Well, remember what we covered earlier about Google treating irrelevant 301 redirects as soft 404\u2019s. This may happen when redirecting posts and pages to your homepage.<\/p>\n<p>But here\u2019s the thing: if you <strong>don\u2019t<\/strong>&nbsp;redirect these pages, then there\u2019s a 100% chance of Google treating them as soft 404\u2019s. Conclusion: you may as well redirect them.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s one caveat to this, however, which is that you shouldn\u2019t redirect pages with low-quality backlinks. Doing this is likely to cause more harm than good, so make sure to check the <strong>Backlinks<\/strong>&nbsp;report in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;for each page before redirecting.<\/p>\n<p>If the backlink profile looks like&nbsp;this\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"596\" height=\"142\" class=\"wp-image-27206\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bad-links-ahrefs.png\" alt=\"bad links ahrefs\"><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 then it\u2019s probably best to just delete that page and leave it as a&nbsp;404.<\/p>\n<p>Or, if you really feel the need to redirect the page, then you could <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-disavow-links\/\">disavow<\/a>&nbsp;the bad links before doing so. However, this is likely more effort than it\u2019s&nbsp;worth.<\/p>\n<h2>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>301 redirects have a lot of uses when it comes to&nbsp;SEO.<\/p>\n<p>Use them strategically and you could see huge gains in organic traffic. However, it pays to make sure there are no existing problems with 301 redirects on your website first, as these could be hindering your current and future SEO efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Did I miss anything in this guide? Let me know in the comments or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joshuachardwick?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>301 redirects are pretty simple. They\u2019re used to redirect one webpage to another. But understanding how they relate to SEO is more complicated. In this guide, you\u2019ll learn: What 301 redirects are How to implement them How they affect SEO<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":27841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[],"coauthors":[336],"class_list":["post-27214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technical-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>301 Redirects Explained: How They Impact SEO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn what 301 redirects are, how they affect SEO, how to implement them, and most importantly, how to use them to boost 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