Backlinking and Redirect links

[Mubashir_Baloch]

Can anyone properly explain that whats the basic differnce between redirects? and backlinks?

my site lottery sambad  is getting some 301 redirects, is that good or bad??

[Paddy_Moogan]

Hi there,

Thanks for the question. Moz have a really good guide on types of redirects here which is worth reading, but in summary - a redirect is designed to send users to a new URL if the old one has changed for some reason. It is also there for search engines to follow so that they can understand if a URL no longer exists and to pass ranking signals to the new URL. They basically reduce the need for a 404 page which can be a bad user experience, but redirects are best used to redirect users and search engines to similar pages.

When it comes to backlinks, it's pretty normal to have some backlinks pointing at your website which may be redirects, so I wouldn't worry too much. The main thing to avoid on your own website is having "redirect chains" which is a series of redirects put together. So for example, you may have:

Page A >> redirects to Page B >> redirects to page C >> redirects to page D.

This is a redirect chain and can cause issues for users and search engines. With the example above, you'd want a set of redirects:

Page A >> redirects to page D

Page B >> redirects to page D

Page C >> redirects to page D

This achieves the same effect but is far more optimal.  On your own website, I'd recommend changing internal links so that they point directly to the correct URL where possible so that you avoid using redirects on your own site. They're fine to use, but not as optimal as linking to a page directly.

I hope that helps!

Paddy