What is a redirect?
You create a redirect when you enter a URL in the ‘redirect’ field under Page details:
Visitors of your website are immediately redirected to that URL when they click on the navigation item. However, this is not good practice.
Why should redirects be avoided?
- Redirects are confusing for visitors.
They expect to open a page within your website, but are sometimes taken to a completely different website. - Redirects hide empty and redundant pages.
Sometimes the navigation is used to create a list of links, for example links to partners of a research group. This is not good practice either: you create redundant pages with no content that can confuse search results both in our internal search function and in external search engines. - Redirects create unclear navigation and unreachable pages.
Because the logical navigation path is interrupted, underlying pages become unreachable.
Removing redirects
We call on all editors to remove redirects on their websites. Replace redirects with text and explanations on your webpage, with a link to the relevant information. Or remove redundant and empty pages with redirects and create a single page with a list of links or an overview of, for example, partners or members of a research group.
This page is a good example of a webpage with text and clear links/CTA buttons.