Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › How to do a 302 redirect?
Tagged: redirect URL
- This topic has 8 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 9 months ago by Erik D. Slater.
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June 8, 2015 at 12:00 pm #155391KaboutjieMember
Hoping someone can assist? I changed some of my URLs on my website because I have only learnt about SEO. I had the URL on my wholesale website as amber jewellery and on my retail website it was amber products. I changed both those URL's to amber teething necklaces. I only realised afterwards that if I change a URL it can negatively affect my SEO. I did change all the links on my website pointing to these products but in the Yoast SEO it says I should do a redirect? A 302 redirect?
Can anyone explain to me how to do this? I am a beginner so a simple explanation if possible!
http://kaboutjie.com/June 8, 2015 at 12:15 pm #155393Erik D. SlaterMemberExcellent question.
You should definitely be doing a redirect ... so that people who access your page with the old URL will be redirected to the new one ... thus avoiding a "page not found" scenario.
You actually want to implement a 301 redirect to avoid any negative SEO impact ... because a 301 redirect is permanent and passes page rankability to your new page.
A 302 redirect is temporary ... which tells the search engines not to consider your new page to be ranked ... and possibly even indexed.
You say that you are using Yoast's SEO plugin ... and his option is actually a 301 redirect. Just go to your old page in your dashboard ... scroll down to the "WordPress SEO by Yoast" area ... click on the "Advanced" tab ... then enter the new URL into the "301 Redirect" box. For completeness, you should also add it to the "Canonical URL" box above it.
Let us know if you run into any troubles there 🙂
Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedInJune 8, 2015 at 12:24 pm #155396KaboutjieMemberThanks Erik! See I didn't even know the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect. Thank you for making that clear for me. I will attempt that. What is the canonical URL?
I changed the URL so how would the old URL be there? Do I need to add a page again with the old URL and then put in the redirect?
Sorry for all the questions, I really am a beginner....
June 8, 2015 at 12:25 pm #155397KaboutjieMemberI made the category URL and the products in that category a new URL... not sure now what I am doing!
June 8, 2015 at 12:42 pm #155401Erik D. SlaterMemberYour questions are completely valid ... and I generally curse WordPress (they're not alone here) for making things sound a lot more trivial than they really are 🙂
As a general rule, you should never delete a page from your website ... mainly for reasons concerning user experience 🙂 But in terms of the SEO thing, it helps the search engines to understand what they should be doing with your pages when you do make changes ... so it's less about being penalized, and more about keeping them informed.
The "Canonical URL" is simply the URL you would prefer to use for a particular page. Again, it helps the search engines when they discover two or more pages that either point to the same page or contain exactly the same content. The classic example here is the similarity between:
- http://example.com/
- http://www.example.com/
- https://example.com/
- https://www.example.com/
These are all the same page ... but the search engines view them as four different pages ... it's the whole "duplicate" content thing.I think at this point, it would be best if you could post your old link and your new link ... so that we can see what you're trying to achieve.
Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedInJune 8, 2015 at 12:53 pm #155403KaboutjieMemberThanks Erik. I've found nothing is "simple" with websites lol. I thought it would be easy to set up and run an online baby store.... but not really. I have learnt loads but there is always so much I don't understand and need to learn.
On my retail website I had a category called "amber products" and I changed that category url. It was http://kaboutjie.com/product/amber-products/ and now it is http://kaboutjie.com/product/amber-teething-necklaces/
Then there are 6 products in that category... each called amber teething necklace and then the colour...
so for eg http://kaboutjie.com/product/amber-products/amber-teething-necklace-honey was changed to http://kaboutjie.com/product/amber-teething-necklaces/amber-teething-necklace-honeyDoes that make sense? Have a made a complete mess of this now?
I just wanted to get out amber products because it is not any old amber product it is amber teething necklaces. And I think it was confusing customers and making it harder for me to SEO those products? Or maybe it was all in my mind.
What do you advise I do?
June 8, 2015 at 1:46 pm #155412Erik D. SlaterMemberFor the avoidance of confusion over the term "category", what steps did you you take to create the original "amber products" page?
The best thing to do might be to revert back to what you had ... then we can work through it. I'm trying to avoid giving you a solution which could get lost if you ever move your site in the future.
Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedInJune 12, 2015 at 5:20 am #155968KaboutjieMemberThanks Erik
I never created the original category, that was done by the company that did my website. Thanks for all your advice. I have spoken to our website developers and asked them to decide and make a plan because I am just confusing myself noe end!
June 12, 2015 at 2:35 pm #156012Erik D. SlaterMemberI have spoken to our website developers and asked them to decide and make a plan
Definitely the best approach. One thing they really need to do is document their work. They also need to be re-approachable, i.e. they should have made you feel comfortable enough that you wouldn't think twice about going back to them with any problems you may be experiencing 🙂
Erik D. Slater: Digital Platform Consultant • LinkedIn -
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