301 Redirect

A 301 redirect denotes a permanent switch from one web page to another. It is a task that needs to be completed before a URL becomes obsolete.

It essentially entails ensuring that when a user types in a non-existent URL, they are automatically directed to another that we have adapted as the destination link.

A 301 redirect is considered permanent in the sense that it indicates that the old URL is no longer valid for whatever reason and that the valid one is the one we have now created.

Simply put, a 301 redirect informs the browser that “this page has been permanently relocated, and this is the new address.”

To which the browser responds, “OK, no problem! I will send the user to the new URL!”

For example, if you apply a 301 redirect to the URL yoursite.com/example-1 indicating that it points to the URL yoursite.com/example-2 when a user or search engine robots access example-1 they will be redirected to the example-2.

The most common method is to use redirects on a website, which we must do for several reasons:

  • It’s possible that you have changed or deleted a link.
  • The URL is not very user-friendly, and you realize it’s incorrect later and changes it.
  • When someone clicks on a link to a guide created in a specific year, you want them to go to a new one created today.

Why Do you Need to Carry Out a 301 Redirect?

There are many simple reasons why you want to carry out the action of carrying out a 301 redirect, but there are other more complex moments to carry out this task such as:

  • Your website has the .co extension, but you have also purchased the .com, and you want anyone who visits the .co to be redirected to the .com.
  • You’ve moved your website to a new domain and want people to be able to go to the old one and be redirected to the new one.
  • When someone visits your website using the www, you want them to be redirected to the website without the www, which is the one you have set up. Similarly, without changing http to https.
  • You’ve combined the content of two websites into one and want both domains to point to the new one
  • You can redirect not only between domains or subdomains but also between directories or from http to https.

As you can see, it is essential to carry out these actions because they will make all the URLs intertwined, preventing both Google and the user from finding a nonexistent page (Fix 404 error in WordPress).

In addition to SEO, having a good redirection system is necessary to increase positions and improve the strategy.

When to Do a 301 Redirect?

In most cases, you will do a 301 redirect, since we will need to indicate to Google a suitable architecture in the URLs to improve usability and SEO, and this is done permanently.

In any case, do not waste time in redirecting URLs that contribute little, that did not treat good content or that did not have traffic or links. The best thing in these cases is to let them die.