YOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT
If you do not use any redirects, you are serving your content significantly faster. Redirects are likely the one single most time waster in your code especially when you consider mobile networks. They dramatically affect your page speed in a noticeably bad way.
Server-side redirects: Fast, cachable
Common redirects are 301 and 302 redirects which use HTTP to explain that a page or resource has moved. A 301 redirect is permanent and a 302 redirect is temporary. These are both server-side redirects which means that the web server is using HTTP to direct the browser to the new location of the file. Web browser can handle these types of redirect much quicker than client-side redirects and can cache the correct location of the file.
Client-side redirects: Slow, not cachable
Redirects that use the http-equiv="refresh" attribute or javascript can introduce even longer waiting times and performance issues and should be not used if at all possible.
One of the most used redirects on the web is 301 redirect site wide from the non-www to www version of a webpage. These types of redirects have been recommended for SEO reasons for years so many people have them.
It is my recommendation that if you have this type of redirect, you keep it in as it helps Google understand your website better.
Recommendations from Google
Google suggests eliminating redirects which are not absolutely necessary. They advise redicing redirects by...
- "Never link to a page that you know has a redirect on it. This happens when you have manually created a redirect, but never changed the text link in your HTML to point to the new resource location."
- "Never require more than one redirect to get to any of your resources."