A 301 Redirect is a technique used in website management to permanently redirect an old URL to a new URL. This type of redirect is crucial for SEO because it passes most of the page authority (link value) from the old URL to the new one. For example, if you change the structure of your website and move a page from www.example.com/old-page to www.example.com/new-page, a 301 Redirect will ensure that visitors entering the old URL are automatically directed to the new location.
Search engines, such as Google, use 301 redirects to understand that a page has been permanently moved and to transfer relevance from the original page to the new page. Without a 301 Redirect, visitors trying to access the old page will encounter a 404 error, which can hurt user experience and the site's SEO.
Implementing a 301 Redirect is relatively straightforward. On Apache servers, this can be done via the .htaccess file with a line like:
Redirect 301 /old-page http://www.example.com/new-page
On Nginx servers, this can be done via the server configuration:
rewrite ^/old-page$ http://www.example.com/new-page permanent;
301 redirects are essential when performing a site migration, changing the URL structure, removing old content, or merging pages to improve the SEO and usability of the website. Without them, you could lose valuable traffic and negatively impact your site's performance in search engines.
