Why Using a 301 Redirect is Important

access_time January 20, 2020
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All websites that effect changes to a website’s URL structure will experience drastic fall in search rankings unless a 301 redirect is provided. A 301 redirect is a status code that tells search engines about a page that has moved permanently to a new location and asks them to transfer website traffic to the new location. A 301 redirect helps you maintain the website’s domain authority and search rankings when the site’s URL is changed for any reason. This redirect sends visitors and search engines to a different URL than the one originally requested without having to actually type a different URL. It helps you maintain your search rankings for that particular page. Though implementing the 301 redirect is easy, many website owners and developers just ignore this important aspect and as a result, there will be a drastic fall in search rankings. How a 301 Redirect is Useful If a search engine spider encounters a 301 redirect when crawling your site, it indicates to them the need to remove the old URL from their index and replace it with the new one. If you do not provide a 301 redirect, search engines will be served a 404 - error response code and this will result in the page in question being dropped from the search engine’s index completely. A 301 redirect according to Google is particularly useful under the following circumstances:
  • You have moved your site to a new domain and you want to make the transition as seamless as possible
  • If someone clicked a link on another site that points to a page that has moved or is gone, the visitor will get a 404-error page, indicating that the web server cannot find the page. The person is at a loss as to where they should go to gather the information they wanted. With a 301 redirect in place, you can send them to the correct page.
  • The search engine bots also need to know that the page has moved to a new location and it is only with a 301 redirect that this is possible.
  • You are merging two websites and want to make sure that links to outdated URLs are redirected to the correct pages.
  • A 301 redirect will be beneficial as it keeps the information about your site up to date with the search engines and helps users find the content they search for in a new location without difficulty.
The end purpose of all redirects, however, is to preserve the original search rankings and continue to receive traffic as before.   Difference between HTML Redirects and other Redirects A 301 permanent redirect is better than a temporary redirect because it transfers the inbound links from the redirected domain to the new one, helping the website maintain its search rankings and thus eliminate any fall in search traffic. A 302 temporary redirect, however, would be useful when a site is undergoing temporary maintenance and visitors need to be directed to a different domain Things to Keep in Mind Make sure that you move to a new domain only after setting up a 301 redirect or else the search engines bots will think that this is an entirely new domain with few inbound links. This could result in low search ranking affecting your business potential. A 301 redirect in short is the most efficient and search engine friendly method for webpage redirection. It will prove useful in maintaining your search rankings and provide you with continued site traffic.

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