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World desk2 min

Your Redirect List Is About to Swallow a Page That Still Works

A redirect list is a proposed map, not proof that every listed URL should move. Check whether each page has actually changed before redirecting it.
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A URL should not be redirected just because it appears in a migration spreadsheet. If it still serves useful content and has not moved, leave it alone. Redirect only when a page has genuinely moved or been retired, and send visitors to the closest relevant replacement—not automatically to the homepage.

First decide whether the URL has actually changed

For every source URL on the list, open it and confirm that it serves the intended page. Then establish whether the page or its URL is changing. A redirect is a mapping from an old address to a destination; its presence in a proposed map does not prove the old address is obsolete.

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  • Page remains useful and is not moving: keep the URL working; no redirect is needed.
  • Page has moved permanently and an equivalent destination exists: redirect the old URL directly to that destination.
  • The move or outage is temporary: use a temporary redirect while the original address is expected to return.
  • The page is retired and no relevant replacement exists: do not invent an unrelated destination simply to make the list look complete.

Google advises against redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant destination, such as a new site’s homepage. See Google’s site-move guidance.

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Choose the right action for each URL

What is happening Action Destination
The URL and useful page are staying as they are Preserve the URL; do not redirect it The existing page
The page has moved permanently Use a permanent server-side redirect, such as 301 or 308 The closest equivalent working page
The move is temporary Use a temporary redirect, such as 302 The temporary destination; restore the original route when appropriate
The page is retired, with no equivalent replacement Do not force a redirect to an unrelated page No catch-all homepage destination

Google distinguishes permanent redirects such as 301 and 308 from temporary redirects such as 302. Choose based on whether the change is actually permanent, not on which status seems more convenient. Details are in Google’s redirect documentation.

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Audit the redirect list before launch

  1. Load every source URL. Confirm that it returns the expected content and note whether it is already redirecting.
  2. Classify the change. Mark the URL as staying put, moving permanently, or moving temporarily.
  3. Check the proposed destination. For a move, verify that it is the closest relevant replacement and that it works. If no such destination exists and the original page remains useful, preserve the original URL.
  4. Make each source resolve directly to the final destination. Remove intermediate hops where possible. Google says it can follow up to 10 redirect hops, but recommends directing URLs straight to the final destination; 10 is not a target chain length.
  5. Test individual and bulk cases. Google describes URL Inspection for individual URLs and scripts or crawlers for larger groups, naming Screaming Frog as one example. Check the response from the source, the destination it reaches, and whether the final page loads as intended. See Google’s migration testing guidance.
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Keep migration redirects while they are still needed

For a site move covered by its Change of Address guidance, Google recommends keeping redirects for at least 180 days—and longer if Google Search traffic is still reaching them. Treat that as a minimum migration period, not an automatic deletion date: check whether visits from Search continue to arrive at the old URLs before removing redirects. See Google Search Console Help’s Change of Address guidance.

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