301 REDIRECTS – 1 BIG GOOGLE RANKING FACTOR?

‘301 Redirects’ is the status code that tells search engines that the content at a specific URL (web address) has “permanently moved” to another URL. Think of a 301 status code as a “Change of Address” card for your webpage.

If you have ever visited a web page, you may have experienced a time where that page pauses for just a second, and then goes to another page that you did not request. The reason why this happens is because a redirect has been implemented for that URL.

So what happens when someone types an erroneous website url into their browser? They may get redirected to another page without seeing that original page at all. This is called a 301 Redirect, and it occurs when a web server sends a request to another URL (a web page), and the new location exists, but is loaded in place of the former page. You set redirect types on the server based on what you are doing with this redirect.

Some SEO experts state that 301 redirects should be implemented to preserve the “link juice” to expired content. I completely disagree. Why? The important word to remember in that previous sentence are the words “permanently moved”. If content has permanently moved on a web site, meaning that it is not available anymore on the website, then the content expiration should be communicated to both search engines and site visitors.

301 redirects are the correct solution when web searchers are delivered updated information about web page. Also true, when a website must rewrite URLs due to a Content Management System (CMS) migration. However, for expired content, delivering a custom 404 page is more appropriate, in spite of the “link juice” theory.