Should we optimise our internal links?
-
Hi again,
We recently had a technical search audit done by a specialist agency and they discovered a number of internal links that caused redirects to happen. The agency has recommended we update all of these links to link directly to the destination so we don't lose out on link equity.
We'd just like to know if you think this would be a worthwhile use of our time.
Our web team seem to think that returning a 301 to a crawler means that the crawler will stop indexing the original URL and instead index the redirected destination?
Thanks all.
Clair
-
301 redirects no longer lose pagerank.
https://moz.com/blog/301-redirection-rules-for-seo
But, even though there is no loss of pagerank, I would recode those links promptly if they were on my website. Each redirect places load on the server, creates a small delay in page delivery, and it is simply best practice not to redirect links on your own site.
-
Vague is where SEO lies in the scale of things unfortunately as most things its all speculation on how Google works. As I mentioned it's all lots of little things, at some point you may want to do this but you may also find something a little more worthy of your time in the mean time. It also depends on the value of the page that 301 is affecting, if its a small page that you dont really use or care about again probably not the best use. Go with your gut!
Hope that helps
-
They can do Clair, but it really depends what they looked at. Technical can cause issues with SEO but so can content and backlinks and page usability (UX).
I haven't seen many times when changing a 301 redirect made any significant difference - at least not if it is just minimal hops.
-Andy
-
Hi Andy,
Thanks for the quick response.
It is one of the points raised and I do feel a lot of them are quite vague. But then as the answer above says perhaps all of these little changes to do make a difference when added together.
SEO is such a vague term these days!
-
Hi Greg,
Thanks so much for answering speedily. So you'd recommend taking the time to change these internal links to the current URL rather than the redirect URL?
It seems there are so many conflicting/vague opinions on SEO - it's hard to know what's best to do!
-
Hi Clair,
301's are absolutely fine to use, as long as they are used carefully - after all, that is why we have them. You also need to be aware, that any loss of link-equity is likely to be very small, so I wouldn't worry about this as a reason to undertake it.
As Greg said, a 301 will result in the new page being indexed so as long as there is just 1 or 2 hops as a maximum, then I really wouldn't worry about this.
Was this all that they found for you?
-Andy
-
Hello,
SEO is made up of loads of jobs that have a small affect compared to one big job that gets you that no.1 pos mostly. It's good to get your house in order so at some point i would recommend ensuring that users don't go through too many 301's. They are correct a crawler will index the destination of the 301 not the starting place.
Hope that helps.
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
-
Link Structure June 2019
Question Which link structure is better in 2019 for best SEO practice Example A) https://www.fishingtackleshop.com.au/soft-plastic-lures/ Or B) https://www.fishingtackleshop.com.au/fishing/fishing-lures/soft-plastic-lures/ We're on the bigcommerce platform and used to have https://www.fishingtackleshop.com.au/categories/soft-plastic-lures/ Last year we went from bigcommerce long URL to short to bypass the link juice being sent to /categories Now we have an SEO company trying to sell me their services after a bit of a steady decline since september 2018 and told me that we should have link structure as example B and that is likely the reason for the dip.. Due to breadcrumbing, True or False?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | oceanstorm
I explained i had bread crumb like shown in https://www.fishingtackleshop.com.au/berkley-powerbait-t-tail-minnow/ buy the SEO guy said no it needs to be in the URL structure too. I was under the impression that Short urls opposed to long was better these days and link juice is passed better if it is short url direct to the point? Am i wrong?1 -
Link externally from destination pages
Hello, From my destinations pages, is it beneficial to have a link going externally to the hotels my clients are staying in ? In other words is it beneficial to my website or will it hurt me to link external from all my destinations pages to all the hotels my clients are staying in ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
How would you build links to this page?
Hi i have ecommerce store and currently we are looking to build links to category pages like: http://www.theiconic.com.au/womens-clothing-dresses-party-dresses/ What are some natural ways to build links to a page like this? Our SEO agency has done guest posting and forums but these are not natural link building methods and against Google policy. Any suggestions on how to build natural links to these pages? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wozniak651 -
Redirect wordpress.com and internal link ?
Hi Moz Fans, First of all, I need to say thanks to all of answer to previous post. And today i also have the another question that similar to that post. Because our website using Wordpress.org as our CMS for blog post then easier to redirect by point to new site, According to setting site URL ? However in our each blog articles also have anchor text as internal link that link to another blog post, Which mean those link will be automatic redirect to new URL. So once Google bot re-crawl our website when we tell the Google by webmaster tools and the redirection we using 301. What will be happen when Google Bot crawl those link again We need to changes those link as well Keep same with redirection. Nothing happen
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ASKHANUMANTHAILAND0 -
Link Building Question
Hi, I have a 2 month old blog with me, i have submitted a few press releases for the start, later in these 2 months, i got about 40 guest posts, which i've written and submitted at myblogguest site. My niche is in health. Currently my serps are at 16th page which is not a good position. I want to do more link building, but at myblogguest, no one are interested in my niche and don't want to publish content related to my niche, so it becoming hard for me to find guest blogs related to my niche. But i want to get more links in order for my blog to rank well. Is it ok if i write guest posts in other niches as well like technology and put a link in author's resource box? Does it become useful? please help as i find no other sources for my link building task, i tried researching for guest blogs in google also, but i don't find any related to my niche. Seems like, i cannot go further with my link building. Please help me. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Vegitt
Dheer0 -
How to promote some links on google
Hi our site is http://www.mycarhelpline.com If people search on our site in Google by typing - Mycarhelpline they see links - why mycarhelpline, contact us and about us how can we put some other key pages by replacing above pages
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Modi0 -
Outgoing affiliate links and link juice
I have some affiliate websites which have loads of outgoing affiliate links. I've discussed this with a SEO friend and talked about the effect of the link juice going out to the affiliate sites. To minimize this I've put "no follows" on the affiliate links but my friend says that even if you have no follow Google still then diminishes the amount of juice that goes to internal pages, for example if the page has 10 links, 9 are affiliate with no follow - Google will only give 10% of the juice to the 1 internal page. Does anyone know if this is the case? and whether there are any good techniques to keep as much link juice on the site as possible without transferring to affiliate links? Appreciate any thoughts on this! Cheers
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ventura0 -
Competitors and Directory Links
Hi guys, wanted to get some input and thoughts here. I'm analyzing many competitor links for a specific client (even other clients actually as well) and come across a pretty heavy directory backlink profiles. has anyone here had success with directory listings? Seem many of the competitors backlinks are coming from directories. What say you?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PaulDylan1