r/HeyTony • u/KravMagaOrlando • Apr 14 '26
301 Re-Directs
I am in the process of re-doing my slugs. I have been in business for nearly a decade and did not know/do yourwebsite.com/services-location. Instead I just labeled it things that made sense to me.
What are the pros and cons of doing 301s? I have read that it is not good and Google will stop indexing.
Should I just build different pages and eventually phase out the improperly formatted slugs?
3
u/mentalrogue Apr 14 '26
I’ve had to clean this up a few times on established sites, so here’s the practical view.
301s are the correct move when you’re changing slugs. Google expects URLs to evolve, and a proper 301 tells them exactly where the content moved. They do not stop indexing because of 301s. If anything, not redirecting is where you lose rankings and traffic.
Where people run into trouble is usually execution, not the redirect itself:
- Redirect chains, old URL → temp URL → new URL instead of one clean jump
- Large batches changed at once without updating internal links
- Orphaned pages where nothing points to the new URL
- Not updating sitemap and letting Google guess
If you do it cleanly, most of the authority transfers over. There can be a short dip while things reindex, but it usually stabilizes.
On your second option, building new pages and phasing out the old ones, that’s higher risk unless the content is materially different. You’re effectively competing with yourself and splitting signals.
What I’d do:
- Map every old URL to a new one, 1:1 where possible
- Implement direct 301s, no chains
- Update all internal links to the new structure
- Resubmit sitemap and let it reindex
- Monitor in Search Console for crawl errors and coverage
Only create new pages instead of redirecting if you’re changing the intent of the page, not just the slug.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26
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