One of the baddest things that can happen to your site is to have an internet user try to locate your site through the use of search engines and encounter a ìpage not foundî or a ì404î error screen simply because you changed or retired your old URLís SERP position for a new one, and you forgot to provide a way for your website visitors to get redirected to your new URL.

This can be disastrous for your business as this can have a negative effect on your possible clients. Keep in mind that it is very easy for them to go to another, more accessible and easier to find business. One thing you can do to prevent this from happening is by providing them with a 301 redirect that will basically guide them to your new URL even if they try to access your old URL found on search engines.

What is a 301 Redirect?

Well, first I am going to tell you what a 301 redirect is in order for you to get a better idea as to what steps you need to take for this process.

A 301 redirect, or a permanent URL move, is actually the very best, and the only acceptable means of redirecting URLs or web pages from the search engine point of view. Using another type of redirecting can bring you in trouble with many search engines, so if you want to be able to preserve your search engine rankings, this should be the redirect to use to redirect for your website.

When do you need to use a 301 Redirect?

When you decide to retire your old URL, or change your old URLís SERP position to a new one wherein you may need to move pages around or change the names of your files while preserving your siteís page ranking in search engines, then this is the time that you should use the 301 redirect since it can do exactly that for you. Using the 301 redirect basically lets the search engines know that all links on the web will now belong to the new site.

This is also a great tool if you want to be able to consolidate websites and avoid duplication. This is useful when you use affiliate sitesí IDís linked to your home pageís unique URL since you will be able to let the search engine crawlers know that these affiliate sites are actually the same page. This can actually benefit your siteís search engine page rankings sine you get credited for the other affiliated links to your website, while preventing the search engine spiders from indexing them, creating duplicate contents in its database.

How do you use 301 redirect

There are a number of techniques to use the 301 redirect, depending on what it is exactly that you need to redirect and to where. The most popular type is to redirect your old URL to a new one. All you have to do is to simply go to the control panel of your web hostís page, and select the ìredirectî option there. Simply enter the blank fields with the necessary information and select the ìpermanentî redirect option to set up the 301 redirect.

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