301 Redirection

301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It's not that hard to implement and it preserves your search engine rankings for that particular page. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently".

In the simplest of "technical definitions", a 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to the other.

301 redirects help in preserving your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you are thinking of rebranding, revitalizing your image, getting a website facelift or perhaps, you're also considering changing your website domain, change file names or move pages around, it’s the safest option to redirect pages without impacting your page ranking.

301 helps in maintaining the quality, relevant and appropriate links generated from other websites linking back to your website in order for it to be trusted and ranked well. These links are very hard to get, and easily lost if you don’t implement 301 properly.

So if you are moving from an old website to a newly built website you need to be sure these old pages are mapped to the new pages correctly using 301 redirects.

When 301 redirection is needed?

• You’ve bought a new domain name for your business or company and you want to switch your site to the new name.
• You’ve just commissioned a brand new website and want to ensure people who are clicking on links to old pages are taken to pages on the new website.
• You’ve renamed a page of your website and want to point people in the direction of the new page.
• You’ve deleted a page from your website and you want to point people to another page that might interest them instead of turning them away at the door.
• To ensure links from other websites pointing at a particular page of your website continue to point at a page that is reachable by both human visitors and Google’s web crawlers.