Do you want to know how to block redirects on browsers like Chrome and Safari? We’ll share the step-by-step process for changing your internet settings to avoid redirects. This means you reduce the chances of getting malware, data collection, and more.
However, when doing geolocation marketing, you’ll want customers to avoid geoblocking and IP blocks. That’s because it reduces your ability to send them to the correct page version. For example, you may want to complete a double redirect so customers read landing pages in their native language. Continue reading to learn how to block website redirects.
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Top 5 Reasons to Block Redirects
Now, let’s look at the top five reasons you may want to block redirects. Also, this helps geo targeting marketers better understand why their customers may block redirects. Therefore, you can potentially use strategies to avoid this outcome.
1. Enhanced Security
You can prevent malware and phishing since redirects can lead to malicious websites. The design here is to infect your device with malware or steal sensitive information. Therefore, avoid malicious redirects to reduce your risk of scams.
Blocking redirects helps avoid sites flagged for security issues. Search engines like Google typically do a great job blocking these websites. However, blocking online redirects is a good extra step that will help keep you safe.
2. Improved Privacy
You can prevent tracking since redirects can track your online behavior across different sites. Therefore, blocking them helps protect your privacy by reducing unwanted tracking.
Also, it helps limit data collection from third-party sites without your consent. This is ideal if you want to protect your data and avoid marketing from unknown websites.
However, geolocation marketers can be upfront about their data collection and how it can help improve ads. Transparency is the key to getting customers onboard with data collection since it builds trust.
3. Better User Experience (UX)
Using the redirect block feature will help you avoid annoying experiences. That’s because redirects can be intrusive and disrupt your browsing experience by opening unwanted ads.
However, marketers can provide redirect messages to help users understand why the redirect is happening. This can potentially reduce the chance of users having a bad experience.
Also, blocking some redirects can help prevent automatic downloads. Link redirects that lead to auto downloads are a bad strategy for any webmaster. This typically relates to malware and scam downloads.
4. Faster Browsing
Avoid redirects, and you can improve website loading times. That’s because redirects often slow down your browsing experience by taking you through multiple unnecessary pages. This can quickly add up when you have a slow internet connection.
Redirects also take up bandwidth since the process downloads extra content. This is especially important for mobile users on a data connection. You can quickly eat up your data limit when navigating websites with frequent redirects.
5. Prevent Ad Fraud
You can avoid clickjacking since redirects can register clicks. This inflates costs for advertisers and leads to a worse overall experience. Hence, blocking redirects helps maintain the integrity of online advertising by preventing fraudulent ad impressions and clicks.
How to Block Redirects on Chrome
Do you want to learn how to block redirects on Chrome? You can complete this process with the step-by-step guide on how to stop redirects below:
- Go to the Chrome browser on your computer.
- Click More Settings toward the top right.
- Select Privacy and security site settings.
- Click Pop-ups and redirects.
- Select the option to block redirects.
These steps may change if Chrome decides to change the settings. However, they are likely similar, so you can refer back to these steps.
How to Block Redirects on Safari
You can learn how to block redirects on Safari if that’s your preferred browser. Here’s the step-by-step process to help you prevent redirects:
- Go to your Safari browser and navigate to Preferences and then Privacy.
- Click on Manage Website Data.
- Use the Search field to enter the website name you want to block.
- You’ll need to select Remove.
- Press Done to complete the process.
Alternatives to Redirects for Marketers
As a geo-location marketer, you can avoid using redirects on your website. You want to do this because some users may decide to block redirects, which removes the functionality.
Instead, you can use hreflang tags to create different language versions of your website. This will automatically serve up the correct page without redirects.
Furthermore, you can use tools to generate these tags and add them to the code of your website. This process is simple; even beginners without coding experience can execute this strategy.
How to Block Redirects for Best Results
You can avoid redirects by using the steps in this article for your browser. However, some browsers only allow you to block redirects for specific websites. This is a time-consuming process since you may visit many websites per day or week that serve redirects.
Furthermore, as a marketer, you want to avoid users wanting to learn how to block redirects. You can do this by giving them a heads-up about possible redirects and how it can help them. For example, this can occur when you want users to visit a different language version of your website.
Do you want to improve your ability to target customers in different regions instead of using redirects? Then, consider using geoPlugin. It’s an IP geolocation and reverse IP geocoding technology.
It’s about detecting requests from your visitors and locating them in the world, down to the city they are in, based on their IP address.
Sign up today to check out geoPlugin for yourself!
