Redirect old image that has backlinks
-
Hi Moz Community!
I'm doing an audit of a website and did a backlink analysis. In the backlink analysis, there is an image that has 66 backlinks but the image doesn't exist on the website anymore (it was on a website that was created in 2011 - 2 web launches ago). I don't believe a 301 redirect will work for an image that doesn't exist anymore.
How would I redirect the image URL (it's WordPress so we have a specific URL that other websites are linking to but get 404 errors) without going to each individual website and requesting they change the URL link?
Any advice or recommendations would be great. Thanks!
-
Hi Brad,
As others have indicated, there's no reason a 301 redirect on a missing image shouldn't work - it's all based on the URL request (not the actual resource served, since the server intercepts the request and forwards it to another URL along with the 301 status code).
I'd second Yaroslav's recommendation on a good WP plug-in for this (Redirection). You should be able to just use the URL string here to set the redirect where you want to point it.
I would also suggest double-checking that these are actual links pointing to the image URL, not embeds of that image on these pages (some tools will pick that up as a link).
Finally, you may want to create a new page that includes a suitable replacement image if one is available, rather than redirecting to the replacement image file URL (bc this way the reclaimed PageRank will flow through to the rest of your site via your navigation).Best,
Mike -
Hi there,
I believe there are a handful of Wordpress plugins which allow you to simply place in a direct URL path so in your instance http://www.site.com/gallery/image/picture.png could be redirected to http://www.site.com.
The main thing to keep in mind is you use a 301 redirect for this process to ensure all link equity is maintained during the process.
A good plugin for doing 301 redirects on wordpress is - https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/
I hope this helps!
-
As jcnotfound2083 states the ideal is to use a 301 redirect. I am certain it very much will pass authority. Reason being I've seen many black/grey hats check for broken links on NY Times on older articles and should they see a DoFollow to a expired non owned domain, purchase the lease and 301 redirect it to a domain they want authority passed.
When it comes to the NYTimes scenario, I'd Personally make a website and put relevant content on it, giving me the most longevity as to not appear blatantly obvious that I'm manipulating the situation for ranking. In the case of this image, you don't want to just swap it with another one especially if it's annoying and had say for instance the date meshed in with the url extension, which is to much to deal with. This will redirect it to your homepage
Redirect 301 /foldersAnd/ToOldImage/image.jpg /
-
Hi,
A 301 redirect is the most reasonable alternative. I would place an instruction within the .htaccess file like this:
Redirect 301 /[old_folder] new_url_image
-
Hello Brad,
I'm assuming the image used to be on the same domain you're now on, and it leads them to your website 404 page, in that case, I would upload another relevant image with the same filename to my site and do a 301 redirect.
If those backlinks point to an image from the other site which is different from your current site, you might want to make sure these backlinks are quality and relevant to your content before making a domain level 301 redirect.
Hope this answered your question.
Regards,
Joseph Yap
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
-
Backlink Question
Hello. I have an eCommerce Flower Shop Website and I have created an Online Free Game so player can create flower arrangement and stuff like that. If I had this game directly on my website and provide Embed Code so other Online Gaming Portals can add the game to their website. Would it be good to create back links for my website and increase my domain authority and SEO of my Flower Shop website? I ask because I am also in the Gaming industry and when I release my games, they can be added to hundreds of other gaming portals. But I am just afraid that since this is not is the same domain activity, this might hurt my SEO for my flower website. What are your thoughts about that?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 8860319canadainc0 -
SEO Friendly Files Redirected From Images
I have images (.jpg's) of products that when you click them redirect you to a .pdf's containing all the products' specs, patterns, colors, etc. These are 302 redirects that open on a different window when clicked on. Is there a way to keep these redirects and maintain SEO optimization? Any advice is appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SuperiorPavers0 -
Best wordpress plugin for redirects, Old to new pages
What is the best wordpress plugin for redirects, Old to new pages?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Michael.Leonard1 -
301 Redirection
Hi there guys, I have a question about redirection. My boss has just bought a new domain name and he wants it to redirect to our current site when looking for specific products. www.example.com is our current website www.productname.com is the new domain So the new domain would be redirected to example.com. Would that be considered against Google Policies? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PremioOscar0 -
301 Redirecting an Entire Site
I have a question which has had me thinking for hours..... If SITE A is ranking well on a number of search phrases and you 301 that site to another (SITE B). The site will change on the Google SERPs to the site which you've re-directed to... In this case SITE B. But how do you maintain the rankings of SITE A?. Do you keep the rankings of SITE A forever? Or will your rankings of SITE A (now SITE B) gradually slip as other sites rank higher? As you can no longer edit SITE A does Google take into consideration the content on SITE B and no longer take anything that SITE A had to offer into consideration? SITE B has simply replaced it in the SERPs??...... Please can anybody help? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | karl620 -
Undo a 301 redirect
Hi there, 4 months ago I have done a redirect from one domain to another. Now, after about 120 days I have just a few results from the old domain indexed. The problem is that I believe that the old domain name had a really big impact on rankings, as it had the main keyword in the domain name. I'm wondering now if I could restore the old domain just by taking out the 301 instruction and how will search engines react. Do you have any studies on that? Would it be possible? Matt Cutts himself did it with his own domain, but he doesn't talk specifically on the effect of the rankings: http://www.thedotcomblog.com/seo/redirects-after-change-in-domain-name Thanks in advance for any help,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SandraMoZ0 -
How to do a wildcard redirect?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am not a programmer and my client's programmer is asking me how to set this up. Normally I do it in my cPanel, but they can't and need to write it in the .htaccess file. The client's new website was posted at dev.site.com and of course their programmer put robots="index,follow" and so the site is completely indexed. They are launching it tomorrow at www.site.com. I need a wildcard redirect that takes dev.site.com/anything and 301 redirects it to www.site.com/samething if that makes sense. Basically redirects every dev.site.com URL to www.site.com so we don't have duplicate indexation issues. Can anyone tell me the code to do this that needs to go in the .htaccess file? I would just do it through cPanel but that's not an option, so any help is appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DanDeceuster0 -
HT.Access Redirect Question
Quick question on the HT.Access / Redirects... II have a site http://www.securitysystemsfortlauderdale.org/ADT-Home-Security-Alarm-Systems/ and I am running througth SEO moz for backlinks and noticed a large descrepancy on the links on the root vs the redirect. There are more links on the root and less on the redirect. Does this affect SEO for Google or does Google follow the redirects and give credit accordingly. Thanks for your help!!! Matt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | joeups0