Are 301 Redirects a Google Ranking Factor? - Search Engine Journal

Using 301 redirects to tell search engines when a webpage has permanently moved to a new location is definitely an SEO best practice.

But can 301 redirects affect your organic search rankings?

Read on to learn whether there is any connection between 301 redirects and improved Google rankings.

The Claim: 301 Redirects are a Ranking Factor

What are 301 redirects?

A 301 redirect is a server-side redirection for a URL that has permanently changed.

You would use a 301 redirect for the following scenarios:

• You are going from HTTP to HTTPS.
• You are moving from an old domain to a new one.
• You are optimizing URL slugs for existing posts and pages.
• You are moving to a new website platform and your pages will change from https://domain.com/page.html to https://domain.com/page/.

Most of the discussion surrounding 301 redirects focuses on whether PageRank would transfer from the old URL to the new URL.

Or, if inbound links existed for the old URL, would they automatically be applied to the new URL?

The Evidence Against 301 Redirects as a Ranking Factor

Not much is officially said about 301 redirects as a ranking factor.

In 2012, Matt Cutts, then the head of Google’s Webspam Team, said that Google would follow an unlimited number of redirects from one page to another.

Google will even make multiple hops if a page is redirected to another page, and then redirected again and again. He noted that the Googlebot may stop following redirects after four to five hops.

In 2013, Cutts...

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