The Redirect WordPress plugin helps webmasters to create a 301 redirect program. It will point the visitors to your permanently changed new destination URL, from your old requested URL, without giving any 404 error.
Search engines do not approve frequent 404 errors. They will penalize your page by de-indexing it. Therefore, you lose a page having lots of quality backlinks and traffic. 404 errors also push the visitors towards your competitor’s websites, making you lose valuable opportunities.
With the 301 redirect plugin, you can inform the search engines about the permanent changes in your URL. That way, they pass all the link juice and backlinks from your old URL, to the new one. The plugin has helped sites repair links after they reorganize their existing WP site content, or while removing the expired content.
User-friendly features of Easy Redirect Manager for WordPress has helped users redirect pages to new destination URLs, without any worries of losing their niche authorization.
Get familiar with new 3XX rules
SEO efforts are always made to define how to deal with URL redirection. In 2013, Google confirmed that 301 redirects could cause a 15% loss on Page Ranks. As 302 redirect was temporary, there was no need to pass on the PageRank.
The HTTP migrations would lose their Page Ranks, as it involved a lengthy redirect chain. All this was a topic of concern for those who desired to change their URL, or handle an outdated product page, or relocate an entire site. Losing hard-earned traffic kept SEOs from migrating or switch to HTTPs.
New Rules for 3XX redirects [all 300]
Due to the redirection drawback, Google passed a new rule. It was announced that Page Ranks would not be lost for the 301 and 302 Redirects, when they switched from HTTP to HTTPS. The effort was made to encourage the adoption of HTTPS. It was said that Google will find ways to pass PageRank in every kind of 3XX redirects.
Is there no risk of traffic loss via 301 redirects with new rules?
The new rules look good, but still carries some risks. You will need to make serious considerations while moving URLs. Besides Page Rank, the search engines make use of other algorithms to rank pages. So if your 301 redirect page points to a replica of the old page, then theoretically there will be no traffic loss, as per the new rules.
If you add more contents, then things start getting hairy. Therefore, never attempt redirects to non-relevant pages, which do not carry the same weight. For example, a redirect from your fan page to an affiliate marketing page cannot work, because search engines treat redirects to unrelated pages as gentle 404s. It means that both, relevance and link equity gets lost.
Can 302 be used safely for everything rather than 301?
NO, Google has started treating 302 redirects as 301s, and this had created havoc in Page Ranking for many sites that were using 302 instead of 301.
Will traffic be passed on migration to HTTPS?
Google desires the whole web to shift to HTTPS, so a small ranking boost was announced to encourage this shift. The HTTPS migrations are complicated. Webmasters have to tweak several moving parts. The chances of things backfiring loomed over their heads, so they are unwilling to take a risk. However, if everything is done properly, then HTTPS migration works great.
