Is Google Redirection Harmful?
Redirection of Google search results is not harmful. In fact, it is a method recommended by Google in its guide for webmasters. Redirection forwards visitors to dead links to the new location of the page originally attached to that link. A dead link is a link that leads to a deleted page.
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Reason
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URL is short for Uniform Resource Locator. If any element of the URL changes, any existing links will no longer lead to that file. Websites sometimes change their domain name. The domain name is the www.something.xxx part of a URL. The main reason for this is when the company that owns the site changes its name. Usually, the company wants the domain of the site to reflect the new name. If a file moves from one directory to another, or if the directory name is changed, then all links to that page, or pages, will fail. If a file containing a Web page changes its name, or if it is converted to a different file type, with a different file extension, then none of the links connecting to it will work.
Google Search Results
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The search results of Google take the form of a list of links with a description for each. As with any other link, it does not actually contact the site to which it refers. It only stores the address and provides a button, in the form of a line of text, to populate the address bar of a browser with the stored address. If the Web page moves from the registered address in Google, the link remains the same and continues to point to the same address, which no longer exists.
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Benefits
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No one benefits from dead links. Users don't want to waste time being lead to non-existent pages, businesses don't want to give the impression that they have closed down, and Google does not want to publish dead links which would make it less popular than other search engines. It is in the interests of everyone that the website administrator institutes redirects for any moved pages.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
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HTTP dictates the format of messages exchanged to transfer a Web page. The protocol includes a series of status and error codes and all Web browsers are programmed to understand what actions it should take for each possible code. Google recommends redirection via HTTP codes. This method forces the Web browser to do all the work of redirection when it receives a redirection code, together with the page's new address, for the Web server. It is an officially endorsed method and causes no harm to Web browsers or computers.
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References
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