Do redirects hurt SEO?

No. A permanent (301) redirect from an old address to its matching new address passes the old address’s links and rankings on, and Google has said that redirects no longer lose any of that value. What hurts SEO is not redirecting, but redirecting the wrong way: to the wrong page, with the wrong type, through a chain, or with a broken certificate.

What a good redirect passes on

When a search engine finds a 301, it treats the new address as the replacement for the old one. Over time it shows the new address in its results, and counts the links pointing to the old address as links to the new one. Visitors who click an old link, bookmark or printed address land on the right page.

Rankings often move for a while after a big change, such as a new domain, while search engines visit every old and new address. That settles once they have. A permanent drop usually points to one of the problems below.

What does hurt

Sending everything to the home page

If old-brand.com/pricing, /blog/launch and every other old page all land on the new home page, Google may treat those old pages as gone rather than moved, and their rankings are not passed on. Send each old page to its closest new page. With path forwarding, one redirect does this for every page whose path stays the same; path sources handle pages that moved.

A temporary redirect for a permanent move

A 302 tells search engines to keep the old address in their results, so the new one does not take over its place. If the move is for good, use a 301. 301 vs 302.

Redirect chains and loops

old-brand.com → new-brand.com → www.new-brand.com is two hops where one would do. Each hop adds a round trip for visitors, and Google stops following after 10. A loop, where the destination leads back to the source, never reaches a page at all. Point every old address straight at its final destination.

A broken certificate on the old domain

Old links often start with https://. If the old domain has no valid certificate, browsers show a security warning before the redirect can run, and neither visitors nor search engines get any further. Why HTTPS redirects break.

Removing the redirect too soon

Google recommends keeping redirects in place for at least a year after a move. Links on other sites stay around much longer than that, so keep the old domain and its redirects for as long as you can. If the domain expires, someone else can register it and take over its traffic.

Does domain forwarding affect SEO?

It depends on the kind of forwarding. Registrars and DNS providers usually offer two:

• Forwarding with a 301 redirect is a normal redirect, with everything above. It is the right choice for SEO, as long as it also works over https://, which is where registrar forwarding often fails. Forwarding not working.
• Masked or framed forwarding keeps the old domain in the address bar and shows the other site inside a frame. Search engines see a page with almost nothing on it, the inner pages all share one address, and many sites refuse to be shown in a frame at all. Avoid it for anything you want found in search. Domain masking vs forwarding.

Redirect Ninja only sends real redirects, 301 by default, with HTTPS on every domain you add.

Do extra domains pointing to my site hurt?

No. Typo domains, country domains and old brand names that redirect to your main site with a 301 are not duplicate content: search engines see a redirect, not a second copy of your pages. They only cause problems if they show the same site without redirecting, so redirect them instead of pointing them at the same hosting.

Check your redirects

• Enter a few old addresses, with paths, in the redirect checker. Each should end on the matching new page in one or two hops, with a 301 and a working certificate on every hop.
• In Google Search Console, the Pages report lists old addresses as Page with redirect. That is expected and not an error.
• Moving a whole domain? Follow the SEO checklist for a new domain, including Google’s Change of Address tool.

Related guides

• How to redirect a domain to another domain
• Redirect an old domain to a new one: SEO checklist
• Domain masking vs forwarding: why masking causes problems