Hello!

I have a couple of questions related to SEO, Google Search Console (GSC), and page indexing, and I’d appreciate your insights!

Redirects After Changing Permalinks:
About six months ago, I updated my blog’s permalink structure from URL/YYYY/MM/blog-name/ to URL/blog-name/ so I could periodically refresh the content. I used the Redirection plugin to create around 50 redirects for the old links.

1. I understand that redirects are necessary, but can having too many negatively impact SEO?
2. Will Google eventually stop referencing the old URLs so I can safely remove those redirects?
3. GSC currently shows 61 “Pages with Redirect,” which matches the number of redirects I’ve set. Should I ignore this in GSC, or is there something I need to address (like validate a fix just to remove it from showing up?)?

Indexing Specific Page Types:
GSC is flagging various types of pages, and I’m unsure whether they should be indexed or excluded. Without digging too deep into each of these specifically, could you advise on whether I should index the following types of pages?

• URL/files/recipe-name.pdf (e.g., Tofu 101 PDF)
• URL/category/category-name/
• URL/YYYY/MM/ (e.g., archive pages by year and month of blog publication)
• URL/blog/page/2/ (pagination for older blog posts)
• URL/clients/client-1/ (not sure what this is or where it came from!)
• URL/portfolio-items/name
• URL/blog-name/feed
• URL/comments

Thanks in advance for your help! I’d love to get a better understanding of best practices for both redirects and indexing in situations like this.

Hey Jen, first, if you updated your links and you are sure they working, you also have to update ALL the internal “permalinks” from the old URLs to the new ones.

This is necessary to insure you don’t dilute the flow of PageRank and authority through your site.

If you have not done this, I recommend you purchase the “Internal Redirect Fix” from the Blog Fixer here. He will do it for you:

https://www.blogfixer.com/internal-permalink-redirect-fix/

As for your questions above, you will find the answers to most of those questions by watching this webinar here on GSC:

https://tophatrank.com/blog/seo-for-publishers-episode-17-getting-started-with-google-search-console/

Understand that MOST of what you are seeing as “flagging” is not any cause for concern. MOST of those links above don’t get indexed and would be under the “discover not indexed” or the “crawled not indexed” or even the “alternate page chosen for canonical” filters and are just fine.

This is your site correct? https://organizingaplantbasedlife.com/

Just a couple of quick notes I see as causes for concern:

There is literally no competitive advantage, none, for you to use the “All-In-One” plugin over Yoast. And as a new blogger, this hurts you, it does not help you. I personally would recommend you switch.

You also need to be NOINDEXING tags on the blog. You shouldn’t be using them at all. Fortunately, you only have “five” of them right now. And that’s more than enough.

I also noticed two other big issues I would urge you to prioritize fixing:

– you must NOFOLLOW all affiliate links. You have a ton of links to “Walmart” per the example post here. All of those must be NOFOLLOWED per Google guidelines.

– you also must support all “health claims” on your site. You have two noticeable issues in this area; you do not show any clear health training or credentials that I can see via your About Me page. And, even if you did, you cannot make “health claims” without supporting them.

For example, take your post at https://organizingaplantbasedlife.com/superseeds-the-new-superfood-in-a-plant-based-diet/ you said the following:

“Not only are they packed with essential vitamins and minerals, but they can also offer a plethora of health benefits. From reducing the risk of chronic diseases to improving digestion and mental health, the power of greens should not be underestimated.”

“Sesame seeds are high in calcium and also contain a unique compound called sesamin, which has been shown to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties”

“Vitamin K is important for bone health and blood clotting, while vitamin A is important for vision and immune function. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that supports immune function and collagen production.”

“Vegetables are high in antioxidants, which help protect the body from harmful free radicals that can cause damage to cells and lead to chronic diseases. They also contain compounds that have anti-inflammatory properties, which can help reduce inflammation in the body and protect against chronic diseases.”

Unfortunately, you didn’t “support” any of the statements above. Everything above “may” be true, but you have to support them via in-content citations. Otherwise, this will get you in trouble!

Please review my article here: https://searchengineland.com/google-helpful-content-updates-survive-thrive-432843

Then, scroll down to “5. Bloggers must support any and all health claims.” That will help you understand why this is a big deal.

Good luck with your site and welcome to Food Blogger Pro!

Hi Casey,

I can’t thank you enough for the extensive feedback you gave me!  My favorite saying is “you don’t know what you don’t know” so you’ve given me some great action to work on!  Here are a few bullet points to follow-up on your feedback…

1. I just updated all of the permalinks late yesterday, so I should be good there.  I thought that I did them as I went along, but ahrefs alerted me to a bunch I missed.  So barring any error on my part, I think I am good.  I did the FBP course on GSC and look forward to watching the webinar you suggested.
2. Interesting on your powerful comment to switch to Yoast – I did notice that Yoast is the preferred SEO plugin for FBP in the courses that I have taken so far.  I will definitely heed your advice and look into the switch.
3. Yesterday I removed the tags from the few blogs that used them and then deleted the tags completely.  I had this in my mind from a FBP course I watched previously.  Hopefully I didn’t mess anything up by doing that (but knowing me – I am sure I did!)!
4. Thanks for pointing out the NOFOLLOW – I think somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I should do this, but it never made it all the way to front and center.  I am embarrassed to admit that I don’t know how to do a NOFOLLOW – but like everything else, I will figure it out!
5. Finally, I am so glad you made a point of focusing on my health claim stuff!  I think in my mind I was hoping to be a catalyst to pull together just some basic “word on the street” general information – but seeing it through your lens, I understand the errors I was making.  I will review the article you linked and figure out how to solve this.

Thanks again Casey – your help and kindness going above and beyond makes me so happy to be a FBP new member!