A few months back Matt Lloyd wrote a great blog post on 301 redirects. I think that you should check it out and see what you can learn from it. I wanted to add just a little bit more information about redirects in this post and also show you how to check and see what kind of redirection you are using.
Now I know that there are a lot of you out there that are not too familiar with the different kinds of redirections that are in HTML, or may not even know what I am talking about, so let me give you just a little bit of information.
I am sure you have heard of HTML before. It is the base code used for websites online, and there is one set of code that is called a redirect. Depending on the number that you use, it will tell the search engines what kind of redirection it is. Varying from a temporary redirect to one that is permanent, w3schools.com has these as examples of varying types:
| Message: | Description: |
|---|---|
| 300 Multiple Choices | A link list. The user can select a link and go to that location. Maximum five addresses |
| 301 Moved Permanently | The requested page has moved to a new url |
| 302 Found | The requested page has moved temporarily to a new url |
| 303 See Other | The requested page can be found under a different url |
| 304 Not Modified | |
| 305 Use Proxy | |
| 306 Unused | This code was used in a previous version. It is no longer used, but the code is reserved |
| 307 Temporary Redirect | The requested page has moved temporarily to a new url |
The two that we mainly focus on here at Boostability is a 301 redirect and a 302. Typically they are the most common that you see and are the easiest to work with. Matt Lloyd, like I said earlier, wrote a great article on building a 301 redirect and submitting your changes to Google so that they are aware of it.
Now for a 302 redirect the difference is that this redirection is temporary. There have been a few websites that we have worked on where they have decided that they wanted to change their domain or start fresh, and don’t want to loose their customer base so they put a redirect onto that old domain, but put a 302 instead of a 301. This can be a deterring factor for your rankings and can confused the search engine. You need to be sure that you have the proper code on your site. I talked about having proper HTML Code in a previous blog and how this is not a direct ranking factor, but it can affect it.
If you have no idea at all how to check what kind of redirection you have on your website, have no fear! The masters of the Internet have a simple and quick tool that can tell you what kind of redirect is on your old website if you have transferred to a new one. This tool can be found here. All you need to do is simply type in your domain and then hit submit! Simple enough and making this small little change can really make a difference in your rankings and visibility online.
