A Beginners Guide to Setup & Best Practices [Video]

Redirects send users and search engines from one URL to another automatically.

For example, when you try to visit

https://backlinko.com/hub/youtube/position

(which has a redirect) it will take you to

https://backlinko.com/hub/youtube/positioning

instead.

Redirects guide users and search engines from outdated URLs to current, relevant content.

This improves the user experience. Preserves your hard-earned backlinks. And helps search engines crawl and index your site more efficiently.

Bottom line: Redirects can help you manage your website structure and improve your SEO.

When you use them correctly, that is.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• What redirects are
• How to implement redirects the right way
• Best practices for using redirects

When to Use Redirects

Websites change and grow. And if you have a website, there’ll likely come a time when you’ll need to add a redirect.

Let’s look at some examples of when you might need them.

Moving a Website (Site Migration)

Site migrations typically require redirects, particularly in the following situations:

Changing Domain Names

If you’re switching from www.oldsite.com to …