Redirects are available in a number of varieties. When misused, they’ll trigger some main issues, as even occurred to me just lately. Listed below are some warnings to look at for everytime you use redirects.
Take a look at my previous episode and article, “Redirects and How to Use Them in Podcasting” to be taught extra about how redirects work and the totally different choices there are.
(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases by some—however not all—of the next hyperlinks. However I like to recommend issues I actually imagine in, no matter earnings.)
Warning #1: 301 redirects are “everlasting” and cached
In podcasting, we throw across the time period “301 redirect” or “everlasting redirect” usually with out realizing what that truly means: it’s (or at the very least it is assumed to be) everlasting!
I usually use the bodily mail or US Publish Workplace metaphor when explaining redirects. Consider a everlasting redirect as a “change of deal with” discover despatched again to everybody who mails you one thing.
A 301 redirect is everlasting and is actually telling apps, “This factor has moved to over there. Please cease wanting right here and all the time look there as a substitute. So do not take a look at me once more.”
That is nice once you truly made a everlasting transfer—or at the very least intend for it to be everlasting. Like once you completely transfer houses and alter your deal with!
However should you ever change your thoughts or—even worse—make a mistake within the redirect, that redirect can be adopted and the previous URL will cease being checked. So should you make a “/suggestions” web page that 301-permanently redirects some other place, then even should you change the place “/suggestions” goes, any app that beforehand loaded “/suggestions” will bypass it altogether and go straight to the vacation spot it has saved in its cache.
That cache is generally cleared, however it is best to assume it by no means can be! (Nevertheless, this does not apply for anybody visiting your redirect for the primary time.)
So should you get your 301 everlasting redirect unsuitable and you do not repair it instantly—like inside a couple of minutes—one of the best factor to do is to additionally redirect that incorrect vacation spot to the right one. And, sadly, that is not all the time attainable. Thus, I like to recommend that, if attainable, you make your redirect a 307 or 302 non permanent redirect first, take a look at it over a number of days, and then change it to a 301 everlasting redirect.
Warning #2: Your redirect locations would possibly change or disappear
Opposite to the Stanley cup craze of spring 2024, my favourite water thermos has been a Contigo Ashland Chill Autospout Water Bottle with Flip Straw, Stainless Steel Thermal Drinking Bottle,Leakproof,Grey, BLue, 590 ml (I earn from qualifying purchases by that hyperlink) that I’ve had since 2019. However I just lately misplaced it—I believe at a mall whereas my son and I have been ready for my broken-down automobile to be towed.
I assumed I might merely re-order it for near the unique $10 value I paid, however no! That particular bottle has a brand new model I do not like as a lot, and the unique bottle was listed for $45 after I wanted it!
This is what makes this related to redirects. The primary place I went to re-order that water bottle was my Amazon order historical past. Once I clicked on the product hyperlink, my coronary heart was initially crushed as a result of Contigo Autospout Straw Ashland Chill Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle, 20 oz., Monaco says, “At present unavailable”!
Think about if I had redirected to that product web page with a 301 everlasting redirect! Anybody clicking by my hyperlink may need their hopes dashed similar to I did!
Because of this I extremely advocate that any redirect to any URL you do not management must be a 307 non permanent redirect (a 302 redirect can also be non permanent and works nice, however use a 307 in case you have the selection). If I had been neatly selling that water bottle with one thing like a “/waterbottle” redirect, I might simply change its vacation spot when the product URL adjustments, or level again to a web page alone website with a observe concerning the product.
That is straightforward to do with non permanent redirects as a result of they do not get cached. So even should you used my redirect yesterday, then I modified it final evening, and you employ the identical redirect URL immediately, you’ll be taken to the right vacation spot.
I like that Pretty Links Pro has just lately added a brand new function to observe all of the redirects you create and warn you when any of them level to a damaged URL! And that might be actually essential for each your viewers and any form of affiliate revenue you hoped to make.
Warning #3: Most redirects bypass content material
That is each a warning and a blessing. Nevertheless your redirect is positioned (and I am not referring to the <itunes:new-feed-url> RSS tag), the redirect can be adopted earlier than any of that URL’s content material is loaded.
So should you redirect an previous podcast RSS feed URL to a brand new one, something you place in that previous feed can be fully ignored.
That is a warning as a result of it means your viewers will not get something you place in that feed, particularly not any announcement of the feed change (if that is even crucial). Because of this it is best to put the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag in your new feed should you ever change podcast feed URLs. And sure, the tag ought to truly level to itself as a type of affirmation that this feed is the brand new feed URL.
But it surely’s additionally a blessing as a result of it means you do not really want an RSS feed to exist at that deal with when you’re redirecting it. In truth, you’ll be able to have nothing at that deal with besides the redirect! (That is how practically all redirection instruments do it. You do not have to create pages or posts to redirect, you merely create the redirect.)
So if you would like or want to provide some data earlier than the redirect, then create a web page at that URL you share, after which have the redirect linked from the web page.
For instance, that is what I have been constructing for lots of podcasting instruments I steadily advocate. Take into account Captivate, for instance. Should you go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/captivate, you are now not instantly redirected to Captivate, however you as a substitute land on my web page that briefly explains why I like to recommend Captivate. After which you’ll be able to click on on the button to make use of my affiliate hyperlink to go to Captivate. Enjoyable reality: that button is nonetheless a redirect: theaudacitytopodcast.com/go/captivate
Warning #4: You would possibly sometime rename your redirect
I’ve beforehand shared why you should stop saying brand names in your podcast, except completely crucial. Possibly you heard or learn that and determined to alter your “/patreon” redirecting URL to a generic “/help” URL (otherwise you had the same scenario).
Whereas that is nice that you just did that, it nonetheless breaks all of your previous calls to motion that used the “/patreon” URL!
Because of this, should you ever need to sometime rename your redirect—no matter whether or not you have solely typed it in your notes otherwise you’ve additionally spoken it in your podcast—I like to recommend that you just make a new redirect and level each the brand new and previous redirects to the right location (and take this opportunity to make sure they’re each 307 or 302 non permanent redirects!).
Alternatively, you might truly level one redirect to the opposite. So as a substitute of all the time having to alter the vacation spot for a number of redirects, you solely change the final one. However simply do not get loopy with this! I like to recommend making not more than 2 layers of a redirect. So that would seem like this:
“/patreon” (unique URL) ➜ “/help” new URL ➜ “last” vacation spot
I put “last” in citation marks, as a result of it is attainable even that URL will get redirected, as occurs with many affiliate URLs that bounce by a number of trackers earlier than touchdown on the precise last vacation spot.
Warning #5: Correcting URLs you stated in previous episodes is virtually not possible
Should you do rename a redirect, like switching from “/patreon” to “/help,” do not even take into consideration modifying the audio or video with all of your previous calls to motion!
Because of this it is essential to get it proper within the first place and make a future-friendly generic URL you’ll be able to change everytime you need with out breaking previous calls to motion.
However should you did not plan forward like that (and I’ve made that mistake numerous occasions, too!), be sure all of your previous calls to motion nonetheless work. That might be both with a redirect, or a observe and the right hyperlink on the ensuing vacation spot. So even should you stated a “patreon.com” URL in your podcast, you would possibly have the ability to depart that web page up however with a outstanding observe that your help choices have moved and with a hyperlink to that new location. (However be sure that hyperlink can also be a redirect, in case you ever change issues once more!)
Warning #6: Reusing belongings you redirected from is a foul thought (my 2024 redirect mistake)
I have to illustrate this level with a narrative from my very own current mistake.
A number of years in the past, Blubrry launched Podcast Mirror, a free and a lot better podcast-focused various to FeedBurner.
However with all of the options coming from Podcasting 2.0, and the dragging ft of many outdated podcasting instruments and internet hosting suppliers, Blubrry determined so as to add extra options to Podcast Mirror, which might allow you to add Podcasting 2.0 options to a feed that did not have already got them. Similar to how Feedburner might be used to show a traditional weblog feed into a legitimate podcast feed. (Humorous aspect observe: I used to be truly pondering of launching my very own service like this as quickly as I realized about Podcasting 2.0, and I even registered an important area for it, however I by no means obtained round to constructing that product.)
These upgrades have been nice, however it additionally meant that Blubrry would cease providing a fundamental Podcast Mirror service totally free—not even their plain feed mirror service. This improve to Podcast Mirror went into impact throughout my few-month podcast hiatus whereas I doubled down on launching Podgagement within the second half of 2023. So after I printed a brand new episode in January 2024—NEWSFLASH—my feed would not replace anymore as a result of I hadn’t upgraded to a paid Podcast Mirror subscription! (To be blunt, I believe this was a horrible betrayal of belief from Blubrry. However at the very least all podcasters might simply redirect away from Podcast Mirror.)
Having a decent cashflow, I made a decision to redirect my Podcast Mirror feed to a FeedBurner feed—doing nothing however merely mirroring or “proxying” my feed for efficiency causes. However I in a short time found that FeedBurner now not affords a ping service or a handbook refresh button, leaving me with no method to set off an replace of my RSS feed. Consequently, my episodes weren’t going out to podcast apps for a number of hours!
Loopy me—I made a decision to attempt constructing my very own feed proxy service. However after greater than 4 hours into it, I spotted I would wasted extra time (and “time is cash”) making an attempt to “DIY” it and thus misplaced extra potential revenue than if I would just paid the cheap yearly payment Blubrry now expenses for Podcast Mirror!
So I emailed Blubrry on my digital fingers and knees, begging them to take me again. We labored out a deal and I am again on Podcast Mirror now. Hooray!
However right here was my large mistake: I insisted on having my unique feed URL once more.
Why was that unhealthy? As a result of this is what the 301 everlasting redirects regarded like:
Podcast Mirror ➜ FeedBurner ➜ Podcast Mirror (similar URL).
Do you see the issue? If something had cached Podcast Mirror’s 301 redirect on my feed, it could enter what’s referred to as a “redirect loop.” I believe that’s the reason I noticed a giant drop in downloads per episode after I modified the redirect. (And this was in February 2024, so it had nothing to do with the over-hyped iOS 17 replace!)
I truly made it even a bit of worse by momentarily redirecting to my PowerPress feed—however a URL that bypasses any redirects from PowerPress. And this made it troublesome to truly re-redirect after I wished to!
In all of this, my feed URL did not truly matter. Do you even know what my podcast feed URL is? I might have simply added a “2” or “-audio” or anything to the URL after I rejoined Podcast Mirror and it could have been nice.
So the ethical of this lengthy story is that should you ever suppose it is best to redirect again to one thing that was already 301-completely redirecting, DON’T! As an alternative, make a brand new URL as your last vacation spot.
Fast assets for making redirects
I need to finish this with a few suggestions for making redirects that will not trigger issues sooner or later.
301 everlasting versus 307/302 non permanent
With these cautions in thoughts, my common recommendation is to decide on 307 (or 302) non permanent redirects for any vacation spot you do not management. Begin with affiliate hyperlinks, your donation or membership web page, your on-line group, and such.
And for any vacation spot you do management, or you’re completely sure won’t change within the foreseeable future, you should use a 301 everlasting redirect.
WordPress plugins for making redirects
Should you’re trying to make redirects on WordPress, my favourite plugins are Pretty Links Pro and Redirection. I truly use each of them!
Pretty Links Pro (paid) is a lot simpler to make use of and has lots of useful function, like automated keyword-linking, shorter link-creation workflows for pages and posts, sensible redirects, and extra.
The Redirection plugin (free) is extra superior, even permitting common expressions. And, perhaps the best function right here, is that you may allow it to observe your pages and posts to redirect any of these URLs you modify. For instance, lots of my previous episode webpages nonetheless embrace the “faucet###” code I used to make use of in my titles. I’ve already eliminated these from the titles, but when I modify these URLs, the Redirection plugin would robotically redirect that webpage’s previous URL to the brand new one.
Different methods to make redirects
Should you’re not utilizing WordPress, otherwise you need to handle your redirects away from WordPress, take a look at what your area or web site instruments supply, or think about Cloudflare’s choices.
Some podcast-hosting suppliers or simpler website-builders (resembling Podpage) supply their very own redirects you’ll be able to create and handle inside your dashboard. This may work from solely the area you set to work with that web site.
The choices out of your area registrar, your internet hosting supplier, or Cloudflare usually all work earlier than loading something out of your web site. So the redirects would possibly proceed to perform even when your web site is down. And these can work with none web site in any respect.
Lastly, there are many third-party URL-shorteners and redirect instruments you should use, however some would possibly cost if you wish to customise the URL or use your personal area. And even when you should use your personal area, it often must be a subdomain or a totally totally different area out of your regular web site.
Please click here to learn more about redirects and how to use them!
Group nook
- 7,777§ boostagram from Steve Webb on “11 Ideas for Sharing URLs in Your Podcast,” saying, “One other nice episode with helpful, actionable content material. Thanks Daniel!”
- 1,000§ boostagram from Andy Lehman on “11 Ideas for Sharing URLs in Your Podcast,” saying, “I attempted clicking in your hyperlinks for this episode within the chapters and it crashed Castamatic. I’m wondering if it has to do with the anchors.”
- Streaming sats from Dave Jackson, Man Martin (Dwev), and Bryan Entzminger
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Disclosure
This put up could include hyperlinks to services or products with which I’ve an affiliate relationship. I’ll obtain compensation out of your actions by such hyperlinks. Nevertheless, I do not let that corrupt my perspective and I do not advocate solely associates.
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