Redirects

When managing search, it can be tricky to identify what the right thing to do is, particularly around the subject of redirects.  When is it better to rely on rankings, add a modification, or ultimately add a redirect?  The main thing to remember is that for most analytics solutions, it is near impossible to identify the behaviour of redirected traffic in comparison to customers accessing the same page via navigation, so valuable behavioural information is lost. Redirecting search queries to category or brand pages is often a quick fix that may mask an underlying search problem, so it is important to continually review them and validate it’s the right thing to do. The addition of a redirect can have both a positive or negative impact across different customers, so it is important to measure whether it is the correct plan of action.

It is always best practice to redirect help, delivery queries and other non-product searches to information pages to ensure the customer experience is optimised when guidance is needed.  Similarly, if landing pages or content has been created for a campaign or promotion that elevate brand messaging, redirects are relevant to guide customers in the right direction.  Just remember to use date/time triggers that flag when a campaign has ended so they can be archived or deleted.

So how do you know if the other redirects you have in place are necessary or relevant?  See the below table to help guide you in the right direction.

Type	Example	Recommendation
Brand (name only)		Only for terms where necessary (e.g. beauty brands) or if validated in test
Brand + category		Do not redirect unless data quality is significantly poorer or if validated in an A/B test
Brand (incl. combinations)		Do not redirect unless data quality is significantly poorer or if validated in an A/B test
Brand with sub brands or related brands	Armani (points to Emporio Armani, without beauty etc)	Decide on case by case basis Only keep for high volume searches that point to well merchandised pages and where shoppers generally only buy one of the brand ranges (e.g. not beauty)
Product type	Trousers	Do not redirect unless data quality is significantly poorer or if validated in an A/B test
Product type and gender	Trousers men	Do not redirect
Promotion	‘Sale preview’	Keep if (1) there is no identifier for sale / promotion, (2) the LP is merchandised, or (3) the search should not work outside sales times
Occasions	Easter, Eid	Keep if page is still managed Replace with synonyms and search fields otherwise
Editorials		Keep if still relevant and LP is still managed Replace with synonyms otherwise
Non-product content: Store locations	Manchester	Keep
Non-product content: service pages	Delivery	Keep

 

Another thing to consider is your business merchandising strategy.  Are redirects in place for broad terms like dresses to ensure a curated experience covers a high proportion of the site?  Is there a resource issue associated with this and it is a leaner way to manage workload? Are redirects concealing an unsolved data quality issue?  For all of these examples, having redirects in place for key terms makes sense – remember every business is different, but make sure you are confident with the rules put in place and if not, test them to validate your assumptions.

If you think your redirect strategy is masking an underlying search issue, or you have any questions about search strategy, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager for help.