How to Use the Redirect Options Without a SERP Drop

WordPress websites have a certain PermaLink structure that the Google and Bing search engine algorithms like to follow. Constant development of the WP platform has resulted in a very SEO-friendly platform, but this requires proper maintenance of the PermaLink structure. When major PermaLink changes are made, the conventional wisdom calls for applying a blanket 301 Redirect transition, but this will not be necessary in all cases.

When pages have already been indexed, some links are bound to end up with a 404 status, something that most SEO professionals will avoid at all costs; however, if these pages do not have any inbound links and are getting no traffic, the 301 Redirect may not be necessary. Unless numerous website administrators for some reason decide to link to a 404 page, the normal course of action is that it will rapidly lose rank on the search engine results page, thus making it virtually invisible to searchers. What site administrators should double-check for is the possibility of internal linking or navigation elements pointing to these pages.

In many cases, forcing a 410 error would be more appropriate because it indicates that the page itself has ceased to exist an only the URL remains as a vestige. While the 404 error is frustrating, the 410 status code provides actionable information to the search engine crawlers that visit pages. This status code acts more like an instruction to the search engine algorithm, which will interpret the code as a valid reason to not only ignore the page while crawling but to also forget about it.

The 410 mechanism has been confirmed by John Mueller, the current head of SEO at Google. When the Google crawler encounters a 404, it waits for confirmation before proceeding with URL removal from the index. This will eventually happen, but the 410 helps to speed up the process, thus letting Google know that the website is being actively managed for the benefit of web searchers.

In the end, the 301 Redirect strategy should be reserved to pages that will actually take searchers to what they were looking for, and this is better when fresh and updated content is waiting for them. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/f3jm6l/nolinksnotrafficshouldibotherwitha_301/.