People who are involved in migrating a website’s content or building up a page that replaces another, this is one of the most common instances where they implement redirects. And from the redirect concept, one such popular method is the 301 redirect technique. It is important to understand what is a 301 redirect and the benefits of using it.
301 redirects have many benefits when it comes to implementing them on your website. It can be the sustainability of traffic or if you want to improve the technical SEO of your site. The 301 redirects are used by developers or SEO professionals to maintain the optimum user experience that your audience always has.
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What is 301 redirect?
The 301 redirects is also known as a permanent redirect. It is basically an HTTP status code that has been integrated within the webpage that directs the web server in navigating the end-user from one page to another. This is usually implemented whenever you have two different pages but have the same motive. And to eliminate one of those, you have to use the 301 technique.
This technique is integrated when you have to remove one page of your website that is not required for the visitor. It can be because the content is outdated or it can be that it’s not so relevant for your audience. When you face such a scenario, you can redirect the same URL to the relevant page associated with that. It basically forwards the visitor who is trying to access the web page.
The redirect can be done using your .htaccess file or through plugins, if your website is developed on a CMS platform. It even makes the search engine understand the motive behind redirection and search crawlers immediately index the redirect page on their server.
When you implement the 301 redirect method, whatever page authority that the existing page had, it will be passed to the redirected page. This is the main advantage of using the permanent redirection method.
Why do you need to use a 301 permanent redirect?
301 redirect is usually practised whenever the page is not required for your web visitor. It is also popularly integrated whenever the page has been broken and is inaccessible. Here are some of the popular instances that you can relate to.
1. Relocating a domain
The migration of domain is one of the most popular methods that web publishers use the 301 redirect method. The domain can be the core domain or the subdomain, depending upon the type of platform, you can use the 301 permanent redirection technique.
There are many instances of why you need to migrate one domain from another. It can be because your product offerings and solutions have changed or the domain name makes no sense for the visitor. There are other reasons also associated with it, but it is purely dependent on the website owner.
You may find there are variations when you are migrating the visitors from one domain to another. But these are all momentarily, when you look from a broader perspective, you will regain all that you have lost. And with the advantage of the new domain, you have more avenues to scale up your digital business.
2. Changing the website structure
If you have any categories that have been wrongly structured within your website, the 301 redirects permanent method is one of the best ways to deal with this situation. As you can structure all the categories with respect to the posts and pages published on the website.
There are many use cases when it comes to changing the website structure. It can be for the betterment of user experience or helping the search engine to access the content without any issues. Based on the strong structure and framework of the website, you need to use the desired 301 redirection technique.
3. Broken URL
This is one of the most common scenarios faced by every web publisher when they have a large website filled with content. The broken URLs can be because if you have used any dynamic URL setup or it might have been used with symbols. These are something that needs to be addressed and the aad 301 redirection method is one of the best ways to deal with this scenario.
There are other instances also when you have wrongly published a URL that is not SEO friendly, but the page has been already indexed in the search engine, for this purpose you need to use the 301 redirect technique.
Likewise, the broken links can also be from an external source. You need to properly audit your website and see that all URLs are search engine friendly.
4. Duplicate content
The duplicate content is not only taking the content from other websites and posting on your website. This can be an issue when you take up the same content on all the web pages unless you have opted for canonicalization.
As you all are aware that duplicate content is one of the most threatening situations for your website to get penalised by search engines. Because the search engine crawlers are very strict when it comes to duplicate content. Whenever they find duplicate content, they can enforce permanent penalization or temporary.
For this purpose, web publishers analyze which are the posts and pages that have similar content with each other. They make a report with the help of plagiarism checking tools to find similar content within the web pages. Based on the similarity level, they decide which are the web pages that need to be merged or removed from the website.
When you have successfully removed all the duplicated pages, you can submit your website sitemap for search engines to index your web pages.
5. Eliminating outdated content or old web pages
If you have a web page that has been already indexed in the search engine and you find that it creates no more value for the end-user, you may want to consider removing it. Because there is no point to keep such content that doesn’t get organic traffic for the website. But in future, if someone tries to access the web page and they find that it is deleted. It can hamper the User experience. This is the reason 301 redirects are used to redirect the traffic from old web pages to similar ones.
You need to ensure that while redirecting the users from an old webpage, it should be relevant to them and they should find it more informative.
Benefits of 301 redirect in SEO
301 redirects have a greater impact on Search Engine Optimisation. When you properly optimize it, you do not face any heat from the search engine and list its ethics. Here are some of the instances where SEO professionals use 301 redirect techniques.
1. Link value
The 301 redirect technique is not considered spam or malpractice from the search engine perspective. This is only applicable when your web pages are relevant to each other and don’t have any spam practices involved.
The value of the webpage can be based on the page authority score which the web page already had. The same gets carried over to the redirected page to which you have linked.
2. Backlinks
If in case you have built or received any backlinks for the web page that you have removed, you do not need to worry as the same process works for the other redirected page. Even the websites from where you have created backlinks, will also not have any issues with the process.
This is one of the best ways to ensure that you get the same link juice that you were getting from the previous webpage.
3. Uninterrupted User experience
Whenever the visitor comes to a web page and they find that it is broken, it creates a negative impact on your brand. This is one of the primary reasons that you need to strongly implement 301 redirects on a web page.
It also facilitates that there is no loss of traffic that has been received for your website. You can maintain the same user experience and engagement level with the content that you regularly offer to your audience.
What are the issues while using 301 redirects?
Every process has its own pros and cons. So does the 301 redirect method. But these are the factors that you should not worry about unless you have implemented them correctly.
1. Wrong implementation
One of the most common scenarios that web publishers fail to realize is implementing the 301 redirect method. Because you need to have the proper skills and applications to set up the redirection process. If there is even the slightest variation, the redirect doesn’t work and it causes a broken link.
2. Redirecting to irrelevant content
There are many instances where people use unfair means to gain traffic for their website or a blog. This can be done in order to get more traffic for a certain page that helps in better conversion or it can be to meet some targets. When you have redirected the user to irrelevant content from which they had originally come from, this leads to a search engine penalty and is considered a Black hat technique.
3. Multiple redirect chains
When you execute this process, you should ensure that the link you are going to proceed for redirection, it should not be actively used for redirection. Because when you link a page that has already been redirected, it creates a redirect chain and the end-user will not be able to access the content.
Summing up the 301 redirect topic
301 redirects are one of the integral parts when it comes to optimizing technical SEO and user experience. It also makes the search engine understand what are the factors and why are the visitors being redirected to a separate page. After a few days of making the permanent redirection of a page, you can observe in the indexing data that the old URL is replaced by the new one. This is one of the major reasons why you need to use 301 redirects to replace nonessential pages.