If you are moving, you know how important the mail forwarding process is. You need to ensure that you do not lose any valuable information. The same goes for your website. If you are moving your website from one URL to another, it is important to take necessary steps to ensure you do not lose your customers. This is called 301 redirect in technical terms.

A 301 redirect lets you maintain your website's domain authority and its search rankings even when you change URL for your website. It sends visitors to the new URL address than the originally requested by them, without having the one to type the new address. It is a permanent redirect that sends search engines to a different URL. It also links various URLs under one roof so that search engines, with the help of inbound links, rank all the addresses based on the domain authority.

Reasons to set up 301 redirect

There are majorly three reasons for marketers' o set up a 301 redirect.

• To rename or rebrand a website: When a business is rebranding its website or company name, to maintain the power of inbound links, it takes help of 301 redirect. 301 redirect helps in migrating inbound links to the new domain.
• To direct search engines and visitor traffic to the new website from other URLS's helped by the same business: Sometimes a single brand purchases several domains under the same subject matter or name of the business. This is done to generate more traffic. 301 redirect helps the brand's original domain to maintain search authority.
• To maximize domain authority by associating common web conventions such as HTTP//, www. etc.

Difference between other redirects and 301 redirect

Other redirects such as a 302-temporary redirect are used when the content of a website needs to be moved to the new site temporarily if the website is under maintenance and the original website visitors need to be redirected for content consumption. However, 301 permanent redirect is always preferred for search engine optimisation since it transfers the inbound links from the original domain to the new one, thereby not letting any hindrance to the search traffic and help the website maintain its search ranking.

Mistakes to avoid for 301 redirect

Here are some common 30 redirect mistakes that marketers often commit that adversely impact the SEO ranking of a brand.

• Since 301 redirect helps in redirecting all the inbound links from the original domain to the new one, make sure to link all the different iterations of the brand's domain so that the search engine rankings are maintained
• Never set up a new domain without setting up a 301 redirect. not setting up a 301-redirect prior would let the Google recrawl it as a new domain and the inbound links from the original domain would not be captured by the new domain. This will hinder your site traffic
• If you are not migrating temporarily for repairing or updating your website's content, it is better to set up a 301 redirect than a temporary 302 redirect.
• It is essential to set up 301 redirect from the older internal links on your website. If you do not, your visitors might be in for a bad experience in case they come looking for reading older content that are not directed.

It is rather easy to set up a permanent 301 redirect. Do this and see all your traffic coming to your new domain without any hindrance.

If you need more advice on how we can help you with your SEO Strategy and Campaigns then contact us today.