{"id":30082,"date":"2024-11-12T12:39:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T12:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/wiki\/redirect\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:44:30","slug":"Redirect","status":"publish","type":"wiki","link":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/Redirect","title":{"rendered":"Redirect"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Definition\">Definition<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The term redirect means that users are automatically directed to web page B when calling up web page A without having to make any entries. This means that an internet user navigates to a certain URL, but is redirected to another URL. Depending on how the redirect is configured, this can happen immediately or after a defined period of time. Internet users have no direct influence on the redirect.\n<\/p>\n<p>A redirect is realized either from the server-side or from the client-side. It depends on the specific application scenario which option is suited best. However, search engines generally recommend the use of server-side redirects.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Server-side_redirects\">Server-side redirects<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"thumb tright\">\n<div class=\"thumbinner\" style=\"width:452px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/2\/2c\/WWW-Redirect.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"redirect\" src=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/2\/2c\/WWW-Redirect.png\/450px-WWW-Redirect.png\" width=\"450\" height=\"340\" class=\"thumbimage\" srcset=\"\/en\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/2\/2c\/WWW-Redirect.png\/675px-WWW-Redirect.png 1.5x, \/en\/wiki\/images\/2\/2c\/WWW-Redirect.png 2x\" \/><\/a>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"thumbcaption\"><b>Figure:<\/b> Redirect &#8211; Author: Seobility &#8211; License: <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\" title=\"Creative Commons License BY-SA 4.0\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Server-side redirects (HTTP redirects) are redirects that use the status codes 3xx. The returned status messages can also be understood by <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Search_Engine_Crawlers\" title=\"Search Engine Crawlers\">web crawlers<\/a> such as <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Googlebot\" title=\"Googlebot\">Googlebot<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> 301-Redirect: Provides a way to permanently redirect a URL. This type of redirection is useful whenever a URL changes permanently, for example, due to a move to a new domain or a switch to HTTPS.<\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/HTTP_302\" title=\"HTTP 302\">302-Redirect<\/a>: With this redirect, URLs are temporarily redirected. Examples include A\/B tests of new websites or short-term promotional sales pages.<\/li>\n<li> 307-Redirect: With the 307-Redirect, short-term redirects can be implemented. The main difference to 302 redirecting is that <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en-US\/docs\/Web\/HTTP\/Methods\">request method<\/a> and body must not change.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Usually, users don\u2019t notice a server-side redirection unless they take a closer look at their browser\u2019s address bar. Server-side redirects can be realized on Apache web servers with an <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/htaccess\" title=\".htaccess\">.htaccess<\/a> file. For example, a 301 redirect can be implemented with the following code in the .htaccess file:\n<\/p>\n<pre>RewriteEngine on\r\nRewriteCond&#160;%{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com [NC]\r\nRewriteRule ^(.*)$ https:\/\/www.example.com\/$1 [R=301,NC]<\/pre>\n<p>With the code above, users entering a domain name without \u201cwww\u201d can be automatically redirected to the version with www, thus avoiding <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Duplicate_Content\" title=\"Duplicate Content\">duplicate content<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Client-side_redirects\">Client-side redirects<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Client-side redirects are implemented directly in the website\u2019s source code so that no changes need to be made to the server. These redirects can be realized in two ways: via a meta refresh tag or via JavaScript. In principle, however, you should avoid using client-side redirects, as Google and other search engines sometimes can not interpret them correctly. In the worst case, they can even have a negative effect on search engine optimization.\n<\/p>\n<p>A client-side forwarding via meta refresh can be implemented with the following <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Meta_Tags\" title=\"Meta Tags\">meta tag<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n<pre>meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;url=https:\/\/www.example.com\/\"<\/pre>\n<p>A meta refresh is thus executed through the user\u2019s browser. Although this type of redirect is relatively easy to implement, it has some disadvantages in terms of <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/Usability\" title=\"Usability\">usability<\/a> and search engine optimization. For example, visitors have to wait a few seconds until they are redirected to the new URL.\n<\/p>\n<p>Client-side redirects via JavaScript are only recommended to a limited extent as they require JavaScript to be activated in the user&#8217;s web browser. In addition, Google and other search engines may interpret this type of redirect as a manipulation attempt, which could have negative SEO consequences. Redirecting via JavaScript can be realized in the following way:\n<\/p>\n<pre>document.location.href = 'new-index.html'<\/pre>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Benefits_and_importance_for_SEO\">Benefits and importance for SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Used correctly, redirects can have a positive effect on search engine optimization. However, to implement a redirect correctly, it is important to know the different <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/HTTP_Status_Code\" title=\"HTTP Status Code\">HTTP status codes<\/a> and their influence on web crawlers. From an SEO point of view, only the use of server-side redirects makes sense, since the status codes can be specified in the .htaccess file. In particular, 301 redirects are recommended here, since most of the link equity of a page can be passed on with these.\n<\/p>\n<p>Redirects can be useful for SEO and the usability of a website in many ways:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Dead links can be redirected to a new URL via a 301 redirect.<\/li>\n<li> With a permanent redirect (301), web pages can be redirected from a URL <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/WWW_Redirect\" title=\"WWW Redirect\">without www. to the version with www.<\/a>, thus avoiding duplicate content.<\/li>\n<li> By using temporary redirections, you can test new designs or redirect users during maintenance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Related_links\">Related links<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/93633?hl=en\">https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/93633?hl=en<\/a><\/li>\n<li> <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external free\" href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/redirect-web-page\/\">https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/redirect-web-page\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Related_articles\">Related articles<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <a href=\"\/en\/wiki\/WWW_Redirect\" title=\"WWW Redirect\">WWW Redirect<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n    {\n      \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\/\",\n      \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n      \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/images\/2\/2c\/WWW-Redirect.png\",\n      \"license\": \"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\",\n      \"acquireLicensePage\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/creative-commons-license-by-sa-4-0\"\n    }\n    <\/script>\n<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"Article\",\n  \"author\": {\n    \"@type\": \"Organization\",\n    \"name\": \"Seobility\",\n    \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/\"\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition The term redirect means that users are automatically directed to web page B when calling up web page A without having to make any entries. This means that an internet user navigates to a certain URL, but is redirected to another URL. Depending on how the redirect is configured, this can happen immediately or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30082","wiki","type-wiki","status-publish","hentry","wiki_categories-search-engine-optimization","wiki_categories-web-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What are Redirects? Definition and Explanation - Seobility Wiki<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The term redirect means that users are automatically directed to web page B when calling up web page A without having to make any entries. 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