URL redirects can help or hurt your SEO, and they affect your users’ experience (UX).
What Is a Redirect Code?
A redirect status code sends visitors and search engines to a different URL than the one they initially sought. Your motorcycle website’s visitors may not notice why it happens, but Google does, and that matters.
There are many types of redirects, but below is information on the three most common. It also explains how redirects affect your motorcycle website’s search optimization.
Types of Redirect Status Codes
301 Redirect – Use this redirect when your web page’s URL permanently changes. With a 301 redirect, the link value of the original URL is passed to the new URL.
Importantly, you do not want a redirect chain. Simply put, this is where you have a 301 redirect from the original URL to a different URL, and then redirect from that URL to yet another URL. In basic terms, it is a chain of redirects. Furthermore, redirect chains lower the user experience on the final page by slowing down your site.
As you can read on our technical-SEO page, your motorcycle site’s page speed is one thing that determines your site’s rankings. It is also important to your buyer’s experience. Below are some of the page load statistics:
* 82% of consumers say slow page speeds impact purchasing decisions (Unbounce.com).
* 8.9 pages are viewed by shoppers when the load time is 2 seconds, but that drops to only 3.3 pages when the load time is 8 seconds (Section.io).
302 Redirect – Next, the 302 redirect is vague. For a long time, it has been used as a temporary redirect. But it only tells search engines that the page was in a different location. It does not tell them why it was found in a new location.
307 Redirect – Third, the 307 is a newer redirect. It lets search engines know that a page’s URL has temporarily moved.
Notably, these 307 redirects are not vague like 302 redirects. Instead, they are clear that a URL has temporarily moved. Subsequently, you should use 307 redirects instead of 302 redirects. Because these are temporary redirects, the SEO link value is not transferred from the original URL to the temporary URL.
Using 301 Redirects
When you want to use 301 redirects on your motorcycle site:
- If you have moved a page to a new URL.
- You have deleted a webpage and want to send people to a different page.
- There is a change in your domain or URL structure.
- If you switch your site to a new domain.
And you can also consolidate variations of a URL. You might have similar URL variations of your homepages that people get to your site with:
- https://motorcycle-marketing.com/
- https://www.motorcycle-marketing.com/
- https://motorcycle-marketing.com/index
- https://www.motorcycle-marketing.com/index
Adding Redirects to Your Motorcycle Site
Your site’s web developers often set up your redirects. And your marketing person can change several URLs. Then, large-scale 301 redirects, as well as 302 and 307 redirects, are implemented by your website developer.
Finally, you can read more on our marketing article blog. All the articles are related to digital web services for your business.
