Redirects ... do they hurt"

[Data Glasses]

I am going through all the posts on Rod.Tv and eventually getting everything on track, although some of the url's do not match the new Yoast seo titles, I have the option of doing a redirect to the new titles but as Yoast points out. There needs to be a redirect, which I have done on a few of the posts. Will redirects hurt the site? Interested to know, thanks

 

[helloworld]

Your question isn't clear. However I think it is a yes and no answer. Don't over optimise

 

[Data Glasses]

I guess I am asking if changing the original urls on my site posts to make "Yoast" happy has a negative effect on the site. All my post have a Green Light" But you still get further advice on improving the post/page with one being the url does not match the post's title ......thought i would look into it a little, thanks

 

[helloworld]

Gotcha. If the page isn't ranking well you can look at doing that. And yes, you need to do a 301 redirect. Do the redirect in cpanel then open file manager (view hidden files). Edit the .htaccess file move the redirect code from the bottom of the page to the top or above the wordpress install info. I don't use plugins for this..(less plugins the better) although there are redirect plugins available.


Also don't forget to update internal and external links if you are doing a redirect.

 

[Data Glasses]

Thanks, have already used a plugin for just a couple

 

[findtim]

Edit the .htaccess file

read up abot google , 301 redirect, max cutts.
don't be confused by 302 redirects, make a decision of which you want.
tim

 

[James]

301 redirects are good for sites if you want to move content, we worked on a job recently where they had 302 on all links from non-www domain, they were missing 6k root level domains. After 30 days the site saw a 10% increase in organic clicks due to the fix.

 

[petermeadit]

Absolutely 301s should be understood and used as a staple part of any SEO.
A word of caution: They need to be managed effectively and they can very quickly become out of control if any sweeping changes are made to a website url structure, resulting in a large number of 404.
Anybody with experience dealing with large numbers of 404s will know just how daunting the task can be to address.
So just have a think about how you are going to keep track of your 301s etc.

 

[Data Glasses]

Thanks all, I wasn't really thinking about seo, but if it helps that's cool, we are only talking about a few urls that did not resolve when i used the screaming frog test (chris showed me this tool at a wordpress meetup) I used a plugin and no dramas!