Changing title tags, do we need 301 redirects
-
I found many duplicate title tags and I'm in the process of changing it Do I need 301 redirects in place when I switch it? I am only changing the title tag.
Also, we are switching over to a new site very soon, I am worried that we might be using too many 301 redirect "hops" because we are doing a lot of optimization as well. (video from matt cutts describing 301 redirects and hops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1lVPrYoBkA.
Does anyone have any experience in doing too many redirect hops that it affected your rankings? Any good ideas to avoid this?
-
The 301 redirects are NOT needed. Just make sure that your title tags target your keywords and that they are at the front of your title.
-
No redirect needed when changing title tags, only knowledge to optimize them well.
Regarding your 301's, I would look at what redirects the site is currently doing and see if it can be cleaned up if you think you are daisy chaining 301 redirects due to multiple site overhauls.
-
I agree with both responses, there is no reason to 301 redirect just because of new title tags. I think 3 redirects is really pushing it in terms of retaining your link value but 2 I have done several times with no effects on rankings.
Hope this helps!
-
Re changing the title tags, no you don't need to add any redirection. Yo only need to do this if you also change the url and the existing url has already been indexed.
I've done quite a bit of redirection on some sites when optimising and so far suffered no issues, but I'm going to go away and view that video!
-
If you're just changing the title tags, then no, you do not need to setup a 301 redirect. You can leave that URL as it is.
As for hops, I would say that anything more than 3 hops and the search engine is not likely to follow it any further. Here's an article on the topic, complete with a Matt Cutts video on redirects, as well as specifically addressing the hop issue (it's at the bottom of the article).
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Redirect /label/ to /tags/
Hi guys, I have noticed loads of errors in webmaster, page not found.. /label/..... what i need to do is to a 301 redirect to /tags/... can some one tell me the redirect code to help fix this issue Regards T
Technical SEO | | Taiger0 -
301 Redirect Timing Questions
Hey all, Quick question on 301 redirects and the timing of creating them when transitioning from an old site to a new site. Does the timing matter? Can redirects interfere with DNS propigation (which seemed to happen to us when we did redirects minutes after redirecting someone's DNS A record to now point to the new site) And lastly, how long AFTER a new site launch can one still submit redirects and not lose the google juice? All the best,
Technical SEO | | WorldWideWebLabs0 -
Maintaining Link Value Of Old URLS With 301 Redirects
Large ecommerce site that has been around for a long time (15+ years.) During that time technology has changed a lot and we are running into issues maintaining 301 redirects for very old urls. For example we have a good amount of links to product and category pages. Some of the old links are to products that still exist and will exist for many years to come.(of note little to no traffic comes via these links. Most of them are close to 9 years old so they are buried deep within articles, forums, or websites) However as we make changes to the site and URL structure these old urls are taking up more resources to continue to maintain 301 redirects. I am Leary of no longer supporting them because I do not want it to impact rankings however there is concern on how much development time and technology resources it takes to continue to support as time goes on. Does anyone have experience handling redirects 3 or 4 url structures old? Looking for insight from someone who has crossed this bridge before.
Technical SEO | | RMATVMC0 -
No Access to change duplicate product title and meta tags!?
I have a client who's website contains a php file to dynamically call a product xml file from an external source. I asked the web dev company if there was any way to access or change the titles and meta descriptions to be unique for each product and they said no, not with their system. With about 63 product pages is this going to hurt me trying to get him ranked locally? What is the best to handle a situation like this?
Technical SEO | | satoridesign0 -
Creating a CSV file for uploading 301 redirect URL map
Hi if i'm bulk uploading 301 redirects whats needed to create a csv file? is it just a case of creating an excel spreadsheet & have the old urls in column A and new urls in column B and then just convert to csv and upload ? or do i need to put in other details or paremeters etc etc ? Cheers Dan
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Meta title Tag dilemma.... need help
Hey, Guys I have a dilemma that I cannot figure out how to solve. One thing that I have learned is that the meta tag is probably one of the most important factors of SEO. I work in the industry of real estate and we are located in a mid-sized market, Augusta, GA, which does not have a hugely competitive digital marketplace. So, I have told my web developer the changes that I want her to make to our major sub-domain pages on our website. I am anticipating that once she makes these changes which will allow me to make the necessary SEO changes to website, that we will see some good results. I have one dilemma that I can't figure out how to solve with the meta title tag. Check out our rental section: http://aubenrealty.com/rentals.cfm Now, click on any rental property and it will take you to that rental's page. Notice the page title " Auben Realty- real estate....." This is identical for every active and non-active property on our website. Every time we create a new property, this is what it spits out. Now, take it a step further and click on " Contact me about this property," and you will see the same page title. My dilemma is, " How do we fix this?" My assumption is that the best page title would be the address for each property( ex, 1322 Laurel Street, Augusta Ga 30904), right ? Is this some kind of simple coding adjustment?
Technical SEO | | AubbiefromAubenRealty0 -
Duplicate Title Tags
Hi, Are these 2 title tags different enough? Notice only the 's' on Templates is switched <colgroup><col width="559"></colgroup>
Technical SEO | | Studio33
| Invoice Templates | Invoice Template | invoicing Software | Invoice Software Invoice Template | Invoice Templates | invoicing Software | Invoice Software | Thanks0 -
260k 301 redirects
Hello, I just found that some of the urls on my site have both ugly characters and some other things I'd like to fix (such as ---- into a single - ) After some local tests i've seen that If i leave some imperfections there will be 48k different urls on the other hand if the renaming procedure is strict i'll have around 260k out of 2.3M urls to be renamed. If I'm going to do this I'll create new canonicals meta tag and redirect old urls with 301 headers to the new location. The content will not change. My big doubt is SEO wise, I know that I'll have better urls, but aren't those too much redirects on a single day? what would you do if you wish to have shipshape urls and know some of these are crap? thanks
Technical SEO | | mylittlepwny0