Marketers, people in charge of websites, and SEOs are having to redirect website pages that used to work but no longer do so more and more often these days.
But why is it important to send broken web pages to other places?
Simply put, search engines like Google, Bing, and others give live pages credibility and authority for searches and websites. Now, search engines will rank your page(s) based on how well they engage, inform, teach, or please. This is how well they think your page(s) meet the needs of a searcher. There are obviously more things at stake than just whether or not a page works, but a broken page is probably not what someone was looking for when they went to their favourite search engine.
When did you last search for “404 page not found”?
Exactly. You probably never have.
How does a website redirect work?
A redirection is a way to tell the web that your page no longer exists and that you know this. Also, it’s a way to say, “Hey, my page used to be here, but it’s moved.” Here’s where you can find it now,” or “This is the place that’s closest to what you’re looking for since the other page doesn’t exist anymore.”
There are a few different kinds of redirects:
- 301 Redirect (permanent)
- 302 change of course (found)
- 307 Change of course (temporary)
301 redirects
The 301 redirect is one of the most common, and you should use it if you want to permanently redirect a page that has been deleted, or moved, or if you’ve changed something in your permalink structure. This code tells search engine robots that the page in question is no longer at this location and shouldn’t be indexed anymore. If you don’t set up a redirect correctly, your visitors and crawl bots will probably see 404 error messages, which is not what you want.
Since a 301 redirect is permanent, you should only use it if you’re sure you’ll never use the old URL again. If you want to use the URL again, you need something called a temporary redirect. A 301 redirect passes all the link value that an old URL has built up over time to a new URL. This means that the new URL gains or keeps value.
302 redirects
A 302 redirect is typically used in a temporary manner. The redirection indicates that the content you were looking for was found, but it was located in a different place. Use a 302 redirect if you want to send people to a different page when they visit this page and you want to use the URL again in the future.
Search engines expect something to come back later since this is a temporary redirect. If you leave the 302 for a long time, they will start to treat it as a 301 and pass along any value that the link had.
302 redirects are helpful when you’re updating content and don’t want search engines to think it’s gone forever. For example, if you take down your website before launching a new one with a new name, you can use 302 redirects to send people to the new site.
307 redirects
307 redirects tell you that the URL you asked for has been moved temporarily and will be back soon. Since this request could change in the future, the original URL should still be used to make the request. Use this redirect if you know the move is temporary and you’ll need the original URL in the future. For example, if you’re temporarily taking your website down in preparation for a new site launch,
How to implement a web page redirection
Depending on the platform you’re hosting content on, the way to redirect could change.
The consistent method is to add your redirections into your website’s .htaccess file. However, it needs thought. Doing it wrong could harm your site.
The easiest way is to add your redirects into a plugin. For example, WordPress users could utilise one of the following popular plugins:
Ask yourself…
Are you going to bring this page back at some point, or is it gone forever? If it’s coming back, 302 or 307 redirect. If it’s gone forever, 307 redirect it. It’s that simple.