Plain Intelligence

Redirect Strategy

1 min read

Redirects preserve link equity and user experience when a URL changes — but implemented carelessly, they create chains and loops that waste crawl budget and confuse signals.

301 Redirects infographic — Redirect Strategy
Redirect Strategy — visual overview by Plain Intelligence.

The basics

  • Use 301 (permanent) redirects for content that’s moved for good
  • Reserve 302 (temporary) redirects for genuinely temporary situations
  • Redirect directly to the final destination — avoid chains of multiple hops

At scale

For large migrations, map every old URL to its new equivalent before launch rather than relying on generic catch-all redirects. See website migrations. More in Technical SEO.

Related Reading

Related in Technical SEO:

Supporting reading from related clusters:

Cornerstone guide: Technical SEO