Are Redirects Bad for HVAC SEO?

You can redirect users to a different page for many reasons: moving to a new domain, directing several pages from the same website to one page, or using a different URL (such as a shortlink) for a digital marketing campaign. Will this negatively impact your HVAC company’s search engine optimization efforts? Are redirects bad for SEO?

The short answer: Not necessarily, but they can be. Partnering with our experienced HVAC SEO services will help ensure you’re using redirects in a way that won’t affect the link juice to your website.

What Is a Redirect?

A URL redirect, or URL forwarding, is a server function that automatically redirects users from one URL to another. It’s common practice when the original page has been deleted, when consolidating two sites, or when moving your main site from HTTP to HTTPS protocol.

Now, let’s get into the main types of redirects.

Permanent Redirect (301 Redirect)

301 redirects are permanent and are the optimal method if your HVAC site needs redirects. A 301 redirect means that your new page becomes the main page and will completely replace the old URL in Google’s index.

301 redirects are quick, smooth, and shouldn’t hurt SEO. They’re very common, and chances are, many pages you’ve visited recently have undergone a 301 redirect.

Temporary Redirect (302 Redirect)

Unlike a 301 redirect, a 302 redirect is temporary. It only sends your site’s visitors to a different URL for a limited period.

For example, you may use this type of redirect if you’re updating or redesigning your HVAC site or running a seasonal promotion that will expire soon (“50% off your first HVAC inspection scheduled before date X”). A temporary redirect is also an option if you need a different location for a page for a short time and know that you’ll soon move it back to the original location.

A 302 redirect is trickier than a 301 redirect and can hurt your site’s visibility if used incorrectly. Only use these when necessary and opt for 301 redirects whenever possible.

Meta Refresh Redirects

Meta refresh redirects work on the client’s side, unlike a 302 or 301 redirect that occurs on the server. Meta refreshes tell the web browser to switch to another URL after a specific number of seconds.

You may have encountered a meta refresh now and then. These annoying pop-ups say, “You will be redirected to a new page in X seconds.” Meta refreshes are slow and outdated and will almost certainly cause users to bounce. Avoid them whenever possible.

404 and 410 Errors

A 404 message means the server can’t reach the website — in other words, the page or site no longer exists. This could happen because of an incorrectly typed URL, a deleted page, or an improperly set up redirect. 404 error messages can badly hurt SEO, and you’ll want to ensure your HVAC site doesn’t have them.

In contrast, 410 errors can sometimes be a good thing. This error comes up if your HVAC site includes content that shouldn’t have been indexed.

For example, if you used to offer insulation services but now focus entirely on HVAC, a 410 error can tell Google to stop revisiting that service page. You don’t want that page to appear in Google search results again because the customers looking for that service are no longer your target audience.

Why Use Redirects

Your HVAC site may need redirects for many reasons, for example:

• A deleted page. A redirect can send users or search engines to a new URL with similar, more relevant content.
• Changed URL. For instance, you may improve a URL by adding relevant keywords, and you’ll want any traffic from the old URL to go to the new page.
• Changing the parent page. For example, you may tweak your article on HVAC inspections to make it into a blog post and move it to your blog section — for example, www.BestHVAC.com/services/HVAC-inspections to www.BestHVAC.com/blog/HVAC-inspections.
• Consolidating pages. If your site has pages with duplicate content, you may want to consolidate them into one page to improve SEO and use a redirect to send traffic from the duplicate pages to the new URL.
• Domain migration. When you move your site to a new domain, you’ll want a 301 redirect to send visitors and search engines visiting the old site to the updated domain — for example, www.OldHVACsite.com to www.NewHVACsite.com.
• Building a new site under the same domain. You may change the URL structure to reflect updates when building a new HVAC site under the same domain — for example, “About Us” to “Our Story” and set up redirects to the new URL (www.BestHVAC.com/About-Us to www.BestHVAC.com/Our-Story).
• Site maintenance. You may need temporary redirects if you’re running maintenance on your site to avoid 404 errors that could harm your site’s rankings.

Migrating to a New Main Domain

When forwarding your HVAC site to a different domain, pay extra attention to setting up proper redirects. This process can get tricky if you have many URLs to handle at once, so take the time to map them out accordingly.

You may migrate to another domain for several reasons. For example, maybe you now specialize in elite-level HVAC services, so you’re changing your site URL from www.AffordableHVAC.com to www.VIP-HVAC.com. Or maybe you’ve come up with a catchy brand name for your HVAC site and want to include this name in your new URL to make it more memorable.

Domain redirects work much the same as page redirects. They help you keep all your valuable, relevant content and prevent frustrating 404 errors that harm the user experience. They promote your new primary site’s SERP rankings and, when done right, help you maintain the site authority you worked so hard to build.

When you put in a 301 redirect to your current domain, search engines will treat your old domain as if it doesn’t exist anymore and will instead direct crawlers and users to the new site. This will allow you to move to a domain URL without losing traffic.

Are Redirects Bad for SEO?

As you can see, there are many situations in which a redirect comes in handy. Redirects are useful whenever you need to update a URL and don’t want to lose all the valuable inbound links leading to your old page or site. However, are redirects bad for SEO?

To answer this question, let’s examine how redirects impact loading speed and search engine indexing.

Page Loading Speed

Every redirect requires the server to take an extra step before it can show the user the content they need to see. Thus, even properly set up redirects make pages load slightly slower.

How much does this matter? With every extra second your pages take to load, more users will get tired of waiting and bounce. Page speed is everything, especially when potential local clients need emergency HVAC services.

Does this mean redirects are something you should avoid? Not at all. A redirect, especially a 301 redirect, is often a practical move that helps you improve your site’s structure while preserving page rank. It’s hardly possible to abstain from redirects as your business evolves.

However, you should be aware of the potential effect of redirects on page speed and work to make your site as fast as possible. AMP integration, caching tools, and optimizing your site for mobile can all improve page speed, even with redirects.

Effect on Search Engines

How does using redirects affect your page rank? Google’s algorithms work hard to direct users to the most relevant and trustworthy information sources. Thus, Google gives higher rankings to URLs with high-quality backlinks. A site with a high PageRank score (a 0 to 10 score based on the site’s backlinks) will count as a trustworthy source and be likelier to appear at the top of search results.

Let’s say that, as part of your HVAC SEO strategy, you worked hard for months or years to gain links from high-authority sites like well-known home maintenance blogs or HVAC podcasts. Over time, your site’s authority grows thanks to the high-quality backlinks from multiple sources that lead to your site.

Are you supposed to lose all that link juice because you set up redirects? Of course not. However, if you delete a page or redirect it incorrectly, your backlinks may disappear along with that page’s authority, undoing all the hard work you put into establishing it in the first place.

Whether you’re using redirects on the same website or moving to another domain, you should use the right type of redirect. Try to avoid redirects on landing pages. Likewise, ensure pages redirect to another closely related page with relevant content rather than your home page.

Redirect Chains

Let’s say you already have a redirect sending visitors from page A to page B. Now, your site undergoes further restructuring, and you set up a newer redirect from page B to page C. There are two redirects from page A to page C. This setup, called a redirect chain, could seriously undermine your SEO efforts.

As mentioned, every 301 redirect slightly increases a page’s loading time. If it’s just one redirect and if you’ve otherwise optimized your pages for speed, users typically won’t notice that. However, a long redirect chain could slow page loading and increase bounce rates.

Google’s bots notice every extra step they must take to crawl and index your site. If reaching a page requires five or six redirects, search engines could stop indexing this page. Google’s recommendation is to avoid more than two redirects in a row.

How do you avoid redirect chains? Always take the extra effort to redirect to the newest page, not just stack another redirect on top of older ones. This will help you ensure fast loading and preserve your page authority. For example, instead of redirecting from URL 1 to URL 2, 3, and 4, redirect straight from URL 1 to URL 4.

How To Check Your Redirects

Now that you know the importance of proper URL redirects, you should check the redirects on your website to ensure optimal performance. The most efficient way to do this is by using a redirect checker. A redirect checker can give you a list of your redirect URLs, which you can revise to eliminate redirect chains and other issues.

You may also get a message from Google Search Console telling you that Google can’t index one or more of your pages because of a redirect. In this scenario, find the redirected URL in Google Search Console and check the redirect type. Ensure the redirect is a correct 302 or 301, and eliminate any faulty redirects you locate.

Best Practices for Redirects

So, are redirects bad for SEO? They don’t have to be if you follow these basic practices:

• Check inbound links, both internal and external. Direct the internal links to the latest URL and update external links to keep page authority.
• Check outlinks and outbound links and update them as necessary. Outlinks point to different pages on your site, and outbound links send traffic to other sites.
• Check canonical URLs on Google Search Console to ensure Google chooses the correct URL as the canonical.
• Avoid redirect chains. Your absolute maximum should be two subsequent redirects. Use a redirect checker and consolidate all redirects.
• Only maintain essential redirects going forward. Reevaluate old redirects following changes on your site. Weed out temporary redirects or change them to permanent.
• Evaluate your sitemap to ensure it only lists the final URLs for redirects. Assess your sitemap from time to time to spot redirects.

Redirecting a Domain

Redirecting all your web traffic to a different domain is a more complex endeavor than redirecting a single page. To migrate to another domain, you should:

• Check your intended domain. Even if you feel you’ve found the perfect domain, check whether Google has penalized this domain before for spam or black-hat SEO practices. If you find any penalties, you could ask Google to reconsider them.
• Backup and transfer your content. Be sure to keep all the valuable content from your old domain. Then, transfer content to the other domain and take this opportunity to check for duplicate or otherwise irrelevant content.
• Notify Google of the domain migration. Verify the updated domain in the Search Console and follow the instructions.
• Check your website for outdated links. Once you finish moving your domain and shut down your old site, check that all internal links point to the right location rather than the previous domain. Use a 301 redirect where necessary and look for 404 errors on Search Console’s indexing section.

Will Your Site Lose Rank and Traffic When You Redirect to Another Domain?

You can move to a new domain without losing authority or traffic if you follow the outlined best practices, use a 301 redirect to one canonical URL, and maintain identical domain ownership details.

Your traffic may drop temporarily, but don’t worry; it should pick up as soon as search engines detect your redirects and pass the authority from the old to the new pages.

Get More Link Juice for Your HVAC Website With Relentless Digital

Now that you’ve figured out the answer to “Are redirects bad for SEO?” your next question may be, “Does my site follow best practices for redirects and other search engine optimization elements?” We’ve got answers.

Check out our guide to HVAC SEO to assess how your site complies with best SEO practices. Need more professional help? Call 262-720-5739 or contact us online to book a strategy session.