37% of Small Business Backlinks Depend on a Redirect vs 15% for Established Brands

    36.6% of links from other websites to small business websites now reach their page only through a redirect, most often left behind by a www or HTTPS change. For 37.7% of small businesses, redirects carry half or more of all their backlinks.

    Share of backlinks by where the backlink lands
    Directly on a working page
    50.1%
    Through a redirect
    36.6%
    On an error page
    13.2%
    Other
    0.1%

    Source: Suff Digital analysis of 60,495 backlinks to 231 small business websites · backlink index data, September 2026

    Share of redirected backlinks by why the backlink redirects
    www or non-www change only
    40%
    To a different domain
    24%
    http to https only
    24%
    Same website, different page address
    8%
    http to https plus www change
    4%

    Source: Suff Digital analysis of 60,495 backlinks to 231 small business websites · backlink index data, September 2026

    Source: 37% of Small Business Backlinks Depend on a Redirect vs 15% for Established Brands - Suff Digital