{"id":2364,"date":"2022-11-07T17:51:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T12:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostkicker.com\/blog\/?p=2364"},"modified":"2023-04-12T10:57:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T05:27:56","slug":"the-ultimate-guide-to-301-redirects-in-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hostkicker.com\/blog\/the-ultimate-guide-to-301-redirects-in-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Guide to 301 redirects in SEO.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you want to learn what is 301 redirects in SEO? If yes, you\u2019ve landed right. In this blog post, we\u2019ll discuss everything about 301 redirects. Let\u2019s get started.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are 301 redirects in SEO?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

A 301 redirect is an HTTP code that redirects an old URL to a new URL when the original page no longer exists. This is used to signal search engines as well the users that the page they are trying to reach is permanently moved to the new location. Moreover, with this code, the ranking powers of the old page are also passed to the new page. 301 redirect is a permanent code and is used to redirect the page\/URL permanently.<\/span><\/p>\n

301 redirecting seems easy, but implementing them might appear complex. Implementing improper redirects might put you in trouble and may hamper your site\u2019s SEO as well as user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us illustrate 301 redirects with an example:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Suppose we have a blog post discussing the basics of SEO at the URL https:\/\/example.com\/blog\/seo. Later we created another blog post discussing every single detail related to SEO in the blog, the ultimate guide to SEO at the URL https:\/\/example.com\/blog\/the-ultimate-guide-on-seo. Now, we don\u2019t want to keep the old blog; thus, we\u2019ve to use the 301 redirects to send the users from the previous URL to the new URL to prevent them from reaching the \u201cnot-found\u201d page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How does 301 Redirect works?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"how-does-301-redirect-work-in-seo\"<\/p>\n

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Whenever someone visits the old URL, the server sends the 301 status code back to the browser and then sends you to the new URL. This process is so quick that you don\u2019t even notice the redirecting process and land on the page that you\u2019ve searched. However, you may easily notice that the URL on which you are, is different from what you\u2019ve searched.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why may you need to use 301 redirects in SEO?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

There might be a variety of reasons you may need to use the 301 Redirects. The followings are a few of them-<\/span><\/p>\n

1. You\u2019ve moved your page to a new location<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe your old URL was not SEO optimized, and you want to move your page to a new URL; this may be the reason you may want to use the 301 redirects in SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. You\u2019ve merged your pages<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe you have multiple pages for a similar topic, and you want to merge them to create a single, more useful content, then you may need to place a 301 redirect from the old URLs to the new URL.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. You\u2019re switching to a new domain<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are migrating from your old domain to a new domain, it is necessary for you to implement a page-to-page 301 redirect from your old URL to the new URL. This will help you pass the raking powers of your old URLs to the new ones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. You\u2019ve removed your pages.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

You might require to use a 301 redirect if you want to remove a web page from your site and want to direct your users to a new URL.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Due to broken URLs on your site<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

You might have discovered broken URLs on your site and want to direct users to a new location or new content. For this, you can use 301 redirects to make this process seamless.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. You want to send users to your preferred URL.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Your users might use different URLs to reach your website. If you want to send them to your preferred URL, you can implement a 301 redirect to direct traffic from all the other URLs to your preferred URL.<\/span><\/p>\n

Types of redirects in SEO. What\u2019s the difference?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are different types of redirects, based on if they are permanent or temporary. These are 301, 302, 307, and Meta-refresh. Let\u2019s discuss them one by one.<\/span><\/p>\n

301-The Permanent Redirect<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The 301 redirect is the permanent type of redirect that you can use to permanently move your old URL to a new URL. It signals search engines that the page or URL is permanently shifted to the new location. This is the most useful and efficient type of redirecting as it passes on the whole link equity to the new URL. This redirect is best for the users as well as the search engines and is recommended over its other types. You can use 301 redirecting when you want to migrate to a new domain, when you want to direct your users to your preferred URL, or when merging your content into one, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

302-The Temporary Redirect<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The 302 redirect is the temporary type of redirect you can use when temporarily redirecting a page. These are primarily used to signal search engines that your page is moved only for a temporary period of time. There are two different versions of this, 1.0 and 1.1, and this is the 1.0 version. It is used when your page is under maintenance, when you redirect the users to another URL keeping the previous URL indexed, or you want to use the URL on your page to the content of another page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

307-The Temporary Redirect<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u00a0The 307 HTTP 1.1 is the successor of the 302 redirects and works similarly to the 302. This signals search engines that the page is temporarily moved and will be back soon. Both work similarly, but there\u2019s a small technical difference. Using 302 is recommended.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meta Refresh<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Meta refresh is another technique of redirecting. These are the page-level redirects rather than the server-level redirects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meta-redirecting loads the page normally with a 200 – OK status code. Afterwards, a script redirects the user to another page. This technique is not SEO friendly because it\u2019s a slow process and provides a confusing user experience. They do pass link equity, but the passed link equity may get lost.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These are popular with the \u201cfive-second countdown\u201d with the text, click here.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How to do 301 redirects in SEO<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Redirects can be implemented through various methods, such as using plugins or doing it from the server level itself. The best way is to do it at the server level because, in WordPress, you can\u2019t implement a redirect going out of the box.<\/span><\/p>\n

#Implementing redirects at the server level<\/strong><\/p>\n

Applying 301 redirects at the server level can be another challenge. This is because websites can run on different software such as Apache, Nginx, IIS, or more, which requires different methods to implement a redirect. If you don\u2019t know the correct way for this, taking help from a web developer could be the best option.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, we\u2019ll discuss ways to implement a 301 redirect in Apache web servers. The most common method for this is editing your site\u2019s .htaccess file, which is present in your site\u2019s root folder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Following are some code snippets for implementing common types of 301 redirects using .htaccess files.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Snippet for Redirecting an old page to a new page<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Redirect301\/old-page.html\/new-page.html\r\n<\/span><\/pre>\n
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2. Snippet for Redirecting an old domain to a new domain<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
 RewriteEngine on<\/span>\r\n RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldsite.com [NC,OR]<\/span>\r\n RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.oldsite.com [NC]<\/span>\r\n RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https:\/\/newsite.com\/$1 [L,R=301,NC]<\/span><\/pre>\n
Note:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Check your .htaccess file before placing the code. If \u201cRewriteEngine On\u201d is present in your .htaccess, please don\u2019t repeat it. Copy the rest code. You can also do it from your Cpanel. Choose whichever suits you.<\/span><\/p>\n
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3. Snippet for Redirecting the entire domain from non-www to www or, conversely.<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n