301 Redirects Vs. Canonical; Which One to Use and When?

The 301 redirect and canonical tag options have been around for several years but they have a propensity of creating confusion along with raising questions and debate on best practices. Many SEO practitioners have so much confusion for main difference between a canonical tag and a 301 redirect, and which one is more effective. This is a bit difficult to answer; as both the SEO practices are significant in their particular areas and the marketers should be well aware of that.

This piece of content will focus on both the methods and will let you know their importance in the field of search engine ranking. Keep on reading:

•  When 301 redirect link for SEO?

Let’s begin with 301 Redirect, designed to help search engines and users to find content that have been moved to a new address or URL. Adding this option signifies that the content of your page has been moved to somewhere else. Google suggested different 301 error list

• How does Google handle 301 for website visitor?

It is obvious that users will never notice that the URL is redirecting to a different page unless they spot the change in the URL address. But, as long as the content is similar to what they are looking for, users will not get affected. So, to keep visitors happy, adding 301 Redirect is fine.

Does 301 redirect SEO impact ? they will follow the redirect to the new URL and will de-index the old page. They will also pass link juice to the new URL, but not 100 percent.

As per theory, search engine will remove the old page from their index. This may take a few weeks, but not more than that.

• Difference between 301 and 302 in technical SEO 

SEO person should implementation of proper 301 and 302 redirects. 302 is meant to be used only when the content is temporarily moved. a 301 redirect shows that a website URL has permanently moved to a new location, meanwhile, a 302 implementation redirect says that the page is moved to a new location, but it is only temporary.  In SEO 301 redirects are permanent, whereas 302 redirects are temporary move for web page url.

• What is the 301 redirect .htaccess from one domain to another?

Making direct edits to your .htaccess file grants you complete authority over your redirects. This approach allows you to establish intricate rules and manage particular situations with precision. It functions at the server level, which often results in higher efficiency and doesn’t depend on a control panel or third-party applications. Nevertheless, it demands technical expertise, and errors in the .htaccess file may result in website issues or downtime.

• How to use Canonical Tag in SEO?

A canonical tag (or rel=canonical) is a HTML code that helps search engines determine the “main” content of the authoritative page from the other pages of the website which is nearly identical or similar content. Canonical Tag also helps to know which pages have the original content and which pages are duplicates.  This HTML code which implements into the head section of the page.

Usage of re-canonical is purely for the benefit of search engines. There will arise several situations when a number of web pages will have similar or identical content. As we all know that duplicate content should be avoided, this is when you should use re-canonical.

• In which scenario canonical tag is used with example ?

For example, if you have two pages listing the nearly same series of products but different URLs, the Search engine will index both pages. and will pick up the one it believes is the most relevant and could filter the page you want to appear in the SERPs.

For example, If there is an website www.xyz.com. user can reach your site by http://xyz.com, https://xyz.com, and so on.

You can use the canonical tag in the YEOST SEO plugin with the separate option. you can take the help of proper SEO service provider company while developing your website.

Adding a separate canonical tag it itself so the search engines will know this is only one page with the authoritative content , and this is the one you should index and show in search results.

• When not to Use Canonical Tag?

Using the tag on brand new websites is not correct. Canonical tag in the first page of a paginated series will hamper the content of your webpage. The most common misuse of this tag is that it is implemented on pages that don’t have large percentage of content. If the webpage doesn’t have duplicate content, no need of using the tag.

Honestly speaking, redirect options can be irritating sometimes. As a marketer, it is necessary to have a clear idea about both the methods so that you can execute them properly. Both the options passes similar amount of link juice and are treated similarly by Google. But in general, the 301 redirect is considered as the preferred route.