Setting up a 301 redirect

When an address on your site changes, the old one has to send visitors and search engines to the new one. Without that, everyone following the old link gets an error and you lose the value that page had built up.

When do you need one?

• You have renamed a page or moved it elsewhere in your menu.
• Your site has been rebuilt with a different URL structure.
• You moved from http to https, or from with to without www.
• You are removing a page and there is a logical successor.

How to set it up

1. Make a list of the old addresses and the new address each should go to. Do that before you start — reconstructing it afterwards is far more work.
2. If you use a CMS, use the redirect function your system provides. That is the simplest route and you keep the overview.
3. Choose permanent (301), not temporary. Only use 302 for a genuinely temporary situation.
4. Send each old page to the most equivalent new page. Sending everything to the home page is the most common mistake: it helps neither visitor nor search engine.
5. Test every old address in a private window and check that you land on the right page in a single step.

Where it usually goes wrong

• Chains. A points at B, which points at C. It works, but it is slow and it dilutes. Have A point straight at C.
• Loops. A points at B and B back at A. The browser then shows an error about too many redirects.
• Internal links not updated. A redirect is a safety net for links from outside. Within your own site you simply update the links.

What a 301 means for search engines is explained in what is a 301 redirect.