Technical Information About HTTPS STATUS Redirects in SEO Strategy

In SEO strategies, HTTPS redirects play a critical role in increasing the security and search engine performance of websites. In fact, if a website's redirection is not done correctly, permanent value will never flow. In this regard, it is most important to do the redirects properly and to make them permanent in a way that Google will love. (Applies to the Main Domain.)

If the correct redirection is not applied, user experience, page authority and indexing processes can be negatively affected. In this article, I would like to share the technical details about HTTPS redirects with you.

1. HTTPS Redirect Types

Http Https Status Code Refrects

a. 301 Permanent Redirect

A 301 redirect indicates that a page has been permanently moved to another URL. It preserves a lot of SEO authority and tells search engines to use the updated URL.

Guys Usage Example:

Redirect 301 /old-page https://www.site.com/new-page

b. 302 Temporary Redirect

A 302 redirect indicates that a page is temporarily moved to another page. It is not recommended for long-term use as it does not fully transfer authority.

Guys Usage Example:

Redirect 302 /offer https://www.site.com/new-offer

c. 307 Temporary Redirect

A 307 redirect provides a temporary redirect, similar to a 302, but is more compliant with HTTP 1.1 standards and preserves the HTTP method.

d. 308 Permanent Redirect

A 308 redirect works similarly to a 301, but does not change the HTTP method. It is increasingly preferred in modern SEO strategies.

2. HTTPS Mandatory and Its Impact on SEO

Google has identified the use of HTTPS as one of its ranking factors, so redirecting all HTTP links to HTTPS can improve a website’s performance in search engines.

Redirect All HTTP Traffic to HTTPS

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

3. Avoid Redirect Chains

Chains containing multiple redirects (such as HTTP -> WWW -> HTTPS) increase loading times and can have negative effects on SEO. I recommend that you take this into consideration and be careful. Direct redirection is recommended, and this is also recommended by Google. So Google is progressing with this technique.

Wrong:

http://site.com -> http://www.site.com -> https://www.site.com

True:

http://site.com -> https://www.site.com

4. Canonical and Redirect Compatibility

When implementing redirects, there should be no conflict with canonical tags. If a page is being moved to a new URL with a 301 redirect, the canonical tag should also be redirected to the new URL.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.site.com/new-page" />

5. Testing and Monitoring

The following tools can be used to test if redirects are working properly:

• Google Search Console
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider
• Chrome DevTools (Network sekmesi)

Conclusion

HTTPS redirects are of great importance in SEO strategies in terms of both security and user experience. Using 301 redirects correctly, avoiding redirect chains and structuring canonical tags properly affects search engine rankings positively and clearly lowers your Google ranking score. For this reason, it should be done and controlled in the most accurate way.

Never forget that an effective redirect strategy is a critical step in ensuring the long-term success of websites. Otherwise, all the investment you have spent on your website will be wasted and you will never get good traffic.

Last Update: 06 Mar, 2025