Google: How Soon Can You Remove 301 Redirects?

Jan 18, 2019 - 7:57 am 16 by

Google Patience

We've covered the topic of how long Google wants you to keep 301 redirects in place here numerous times. John Mueller was asked the question again and this time he said on Twitter "After a few years the old URLs are often no longer accessed & you can drop those redirects."

This is similar to his advice about being patient when removing 301 redirects and to leave them up and running for over a year.

This time he said you should try to keep them up for a "few years" not after you first put them in place but after the old URLs are seen to no longer have been accessed. John Mueller then said a bit later on Twitter to keep them for "at least a year."

Here are the tweets:

Why keep the redirects for so long? (1) For users who may click on a link and get sent to a dead URL instead of being redirected to the new URL. (2) So Google can pass PageRank and other link signals from an old URL to a new URL.

I have redirects in place for over 15 years already. :)

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 4, 2025

Jul 4, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June 2025 Core Update, Search Volatility, Insights Report, Ads & More

Jul 4, 2025 - 8:01 am
Bing Search

Bing Search Tests Zoomable & Sticky Related Searches

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google AI Mode Can Respond In Non-English Languages

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Local Place Listings In Green

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center Gains Automatic Shipping Updates

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Patches The Open Date Google Local Edits Hack