Is it bad for SEO to 301 redirect the homepage URL to a deeper URL?

Question

For some reason we need to 301 redirect homepage URL to another URL for a while. Eg:

• we would use a 301 redirect from www.example.com to www.example.com/a-catgory/b-catgory
• we would add a canonical <link rel="canonical" href="www.example.com"> in www.example.com/a-catgory/b-catgory

Because we have a technical issue, we can't make www.example.com/a-catgory/b-catgory served from www.example.com immediately. Is bad for the SEO of the homepage URL www.example.com?

Answer 1

This is an incorrect implementation.

1. You are using a 301 redirect which indicates permanent redirect.
2. You are using a canonical tag to indicate that the main URL is the one being permanently redirected.

So, if you want to maintain the actual redirects and keep your home as the canonical URL, you need to use a 302 redirect instead of 301 redirect.

That would indicate to searchers that the redirect is temporary and the main URL must remain the home.

Answer 2

Canonical tags aren't needed when doing a redirect. I agree with Emirodgar to use a temporary redirect. As for the SEO part, you can use Yoast and set the home title and description. If not, you can also create a page that pulls out the category and you can set the title and description from there.