Google's John Mueller posted a fun message on Twitter the other day. He said that he feels "SEOs fuss too much about redirects." He added that redirects are "not a SEO thing" that they are a "technical thing." He said just pick the right one for the job and "it's not voodoo magic."
Here is the tweet:
This is based on a recent twitter storm about redirects and how Google handles them.
Gary from Google said (a) redirects, all of them, pass PageRank and (b) and anchor text signals:
@jennyhalasz @JohnMu all redirects pass PageRank now
— Gary Illyes (@methode) September 28, 2016
@jennyhalasz @JohnMu ah sorry. They pass anchor text, too. All redirects do
— Gary Illyes (@methode) September 28, 2016
Of course, then Jenny asks if they pass equally, i.e. 301s vs 302s vs others, do they pass equal PR?
@JohnMu fair to say all redirects pass *equal* PR? cc @methode #askingForAFriend?
— Jenny Halasz (@jennyhalasz) September 28, 2016
John responds, why are you asking?
@jennyhalasz @methode Are you seeing any particular issues with some of the redirects? Curious to find out more!
— John Mueller (@JohnMu) September 28, 2016
As you can see, it keeps going and going on from there.
So John tweeted:
IMO SEOs fuss too much about redirects. Use the right one for the job, it's a technical thing, not a SEO thing; it's not voodoo magic.
— John Mueller (@JohnMu) September 29, 2016
Are redirects just a technical thing or also an SEO thing? Or maybe it is a technical SEO thing. :)
Forum discussion at Twitter.
