The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • My Q&A
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. SEO and Digital Marketing Q&A Forum
    2. Categories
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. I have over 12,000 permanent redirects. Is this okay?

    I have over 12,000 permanent redirects. Is this okay?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    5 4 114
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • paultg
      paultg last edited by

      Hey guys,

      I have moved my website to http://www to https:/www. I use a plugin called Really Simple SSL on Wordpress.

      Now I have 12,000 permanent 301 redirects. It seems like my whole site has been moved. Is this the right way to do it?

      I am quite new to SEO and I quite don't understand if this is good or bad. From my intuition, it seems like a lot of redirects for Google bot to crawl through. Is there a better way to move to HTTPS without all these redirects?

      Thank you.

      Paul

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Verz
        Verz last edited by

        A redirect is a way to send both users and search engines to a different URL from the one they originally requested. The three most commonly used redirects are 301, 302, and Meta Refresh.

        To understand all the concepts, I advise you to refer to the Moz article. It's helpful and also written in easy language. The author has illustrated all the things in detail with media files & examples.

        For the detailed information: https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • erwin33
          erwin33 last edited by

          Great question. For a move to HTTPS and no other URL syntax changes, you should be able to put a single regular expression redirect in place at the server level rather than a 1 to 1 redirect for every URL to simply change to the secure protocol. Depending on your domain and site hosting provider, that could be done in either of their dashboards.

          The downside of having so many redirects will slow page load load and ultimately impact your SEO at some point as each time a page is loaded, the redirects list must be scanned prior to serving the page.  Redirects are a necessary  function but keeping them organized and optimized is key.

          I’m happy to continue the conversation if you need any help. WordPress is a great CMS and there are many ways to work through this.

          paultg 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • paultg
            paultg @erwin33 last edited by

            Thanks Ryan. Very helpful advice. I restored to my backup and asked my web host to redirect to HTTPS. No more 12,000 redirects!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • Guest
              Guest last edited by

              This post is deleted!
              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • 1 / 1
              • First post
                Last post
              • 301 Redirects... Redirect all content at once or in increments?
                Koki.Mourao
                Koki.Mourao
                0
                6
                175

              • What is true impact of permanent magento redirects?
                evolvingSEO
                evolvingSEO
                0
                4
                189

              • Redirect two existing domains permanently to a brand new domain
                Townpages
                Townpages
                0
                6
                79

              • An affiliate website uses datafeeds and around 65.000 products are deleted in the new feeds. What are the best practises to do with the product pages? 404 ALL pages, 301 Redirect to the upper catagory?
                Everett
                Everett
                0
                5
                135

              • Any downsides of (permanent)redirecting 404 pages to more generic pages(category page)
                MatthewBarby
                MatthewBarby
                0
                2
                133

              • SEO for 1,000,000 page site
                toddmumford
                toddmumford
                1
                7
                223

              • Redirect
                nyanainc
                nyanainc
                0
                3
                388

              • Multiple 301 redirects considered a redirection chain?
                jmueller
                jmueller
                1
                16
                5.0k

              Get started with Moz Pro!

              Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

              Start my free trial
              Products
              • Moz Pro
              • Moz Local
              • Moz API
              • Moz Data
              • STAT
              • Product Updates
              Moz Solutions
              • SMB Solutions
              • Agency Solutions
              • Enterprise Solutions
              • Digital Marketers
              Free SEO Tools
              • Domain Authority Checker
              • Link Explorer
              • Keyword Explorer
              • Competitive Research
              • Brand Authority Checker
              • Local Citation Checker
              • MozBar Extension
              • MozCast
              Resources
              • Blog
              • SEO Learning Center
              • Help Hub
              • Beginner's Guide to SEO
              • How-to Guides
              • Moz Academy
              • API Docs
              About Moz
              • About
              • Team
              • Careers
              • Contact
              Why Moz
              • Case Studies
              • Testimonials
              Get Involved
              • Become an Affiliate
              • MozCon
              • Webinars
              • Practical Marketer Series
              • MozPod
              Connect with us

              Contact the Help team

              Join our newsletter
              Moz logo
              © 2021 - 2026 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
              • Accessibility
              • Terms of Use
              • Privacy