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Implementing a 301 Server-Side Redirect
September 13, 2005
There could be many reasons why you may need to use a 301 server-side redirect. Usually having to do with a site redesign, pages that no longer exist, branding issues, marketing campaigns and/or a new domain name.
Server-side redirects are the safe way (as opposed to the meta refresh technique) to transfer your traffic to the new site while still retaining your search engine rankings.
The Moved Permanently directive in the HTTP header tells the spider that the page they crawled has permanently relocated to a new URL. Telling the spider to disregard the URL they crawled and index the new one instead.
It will take usually 6-8 weeks to see the old site drop from the rankings and the new site indexed. In the meantime you will probably see fluctuations in your rankings and/or traffic until things settle down to a comfortable level.
How To Implement a 301 Re-direct
Implementing a 301 redirect is actually pretty simple. First, you download the .htaccess file from your server's root directory. If there is no .htaccess file present then go ahead and make one in notepad and save as .htaccess (just as it appears, no extension). Upload it to your root directory after you've made the changes.
Second, place the following code in the .htaccess file:
redirect 301 /index.html http://www.newsite.com/index.html
* The initial command must be the path to the file name of the old page (/index.html)
* That is followed by a space
* The final command must be the full URL of the new page (http://www.newsite.com/index.html)
(If there is already code present in the .htaccess file, double return (skip a place) at the bottom and add the 301 code there.
Third, re-upload the file to the server's root directory and you're good to go!
Of course when redesigning and transitioning to a new site there are many items to consider as it relates to Search-Friendly Design and "SEO Before the Site". These are topics that I'll cover in future post or you can email me any specific questions you may have regarding this topic.
In my next post I'll talk about how to create and implement custom 404 pages. This is an excellent way to help those potentially lost customers find what they are looking for, before they click the dreaded back button.
Happy Trails, Amigos!
James Gunn
see all posts by James Gunn
posted by James Gunn at September 13, 2005 08:03 PM
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Comments
Thanks for writing clearly and efficiently in your blog. Regarding the 301 redirect, does the URL actually perform a redirect or do the search engines just recognize and register the link's permanent change?
Posted by: Jerry Kramer at June 16, 2008 10:13 AM