Should we optimise our internal links?

[iescape]

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

[GPainter]

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.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

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

[iescape]

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!

[iescape]

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!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

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

[GPainter]

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

[EGOL]

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.