Basics
This page defines and explains some basics and basic terms which are not specific to EXT:redirects.
Components of a URL
A URL contains the following components:
scheme://
Example: https://example.org/path?key=value#c123
If the following terms are used in this documentation, it refers to the parts of the URL:
- scheme
- host
- path
- query parameters
- fragment
HTTP status codes
When redirecting, a HTTP status code is sent to the client (usually a browser or a bot). This status code informs the client about the type of redirect. We differentiate between a permanent and a temporary redirect.
For a full list of possible HTTP status codes for redirects (e.g. 301, 302, 307 etc), see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status.
Note
Which redirect to use for which use cases is beyond the scope of this documentation. We give you some pointers here, but information like this can be outdated and it is best to read up on this elsewhere.
As rule of thumb:
There are "temporary" and "permanent" redirects. 301 and 308 are "permanent" redirects.
Don’t use a 301 if you ever want to use that specific (source) URL ever again.
Source: 6 questions about redirects for SEO (Yoast)
For routine redirect tasks, 301 (permanent redirect) and 307 (temporarily redirect) status codes can be used depending on what type of change you are implementing on your website.
Source: A Technical SEO Guide to Redirects (SEJ)
For automatically created redirects, it is not recommended to use 301. You can use 307, which is also the default in the redirects extension. However, if you create redirects manually, it may make sense to use 301 for these.
With permanent redirects (301 and 308) the "link juice" (ranking factor) is transferred to the redirect target. The search engines are notified this way that the URL has changed permanently and that they should update their index accordingly. Thus, from SEO point of view, permanent redirects are often a good choice. If domains are changed or sites restructured, 301 are often used.
Redirect chain
Contrary to the redirects loops, the pages can still be loaded. Redirect chains are inefficient because a number of redirects must be processed before the final page is loaded.
Examples for redirect chains:
/a => /
(it would be more efficient ifb => / c /a
redirected to/c
directly and/b
redirected to/c
)
Redirect loop
A number of one or more redirects which will cause a loop by redirecting back to the origin. The page can no longer be loaded and a HTTP status code 500 is usually returned.
Examples for redirect loops:
/a => /
(source and target for a redirect resolve to the same URL)a /a => /
b => / a
Slug
A slug is the part of the URL path specific to the page. The slug is stored as
pages.
in the database. The slug does not necessarily exactly reflect
the URL path which is used in the URL to access the page. The actual URL may
depend on the entry point configured in the site configuration, additional route
enhancers and decorators.
Example: A slug /path
is used, the final URL may be
https://
.