Now most of the website owners are confused because of technical term 301 vs 302 redirects.
Which one to use?
Which is the best?
When to use?
We have covered all the topics of redirection.
Sometimes we need to remove some pages of our website which have no more value, then we use redirection to avoid 404 responses which most of the search engines do not like.
We redirect the user to the new same page which helps us to maintain our authority and user satisfaction. On the other hand, a page or domain has authority and backlinks which we do not want to lose without getting any benefits due to the redirection.
Lets begin
What is redirection?
Redirection means to send the users and search engine crawlers a new URL from the old URL. It passes the link juice to the destination. When a user comes on your old page/domain then it is redirected to your new page/domain. The user does not know about it which direction is used but the search engine knows.
Reasons for the redirection?
There are many reasons for the redirection, it also depends on the situation which redirection to be selected. We have discussed the common reasons.
- Created new page or domain
- Changed the page URL
- Broken URL
- Fixing some issue on page
- Want to rank other pages
- Redesigning the page or website
- Not want to lose the backlinks
- Page has no more traffic or value
301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirection of one URL to another URL. Old url forwarding users and search engines crawler to new URL destination. This way passes the link authority 90-99%.
When you redirect in this way google will deindex the old URL and give the most value to the new destination. It has the most effect on the SEO if you do not use it in the correct way your page will be deindexed and you lose your ranking and traffic on that page.
Your website gets the link juice of the previous page.
When use it?
- When you want to deindex the old page
- Changeed the url of page
- Domain redirection
What about expired domain 301 redirect?
It’s a long discussion. In short a niche relevant redirection gives you a good value. People are using it for getting the backlinks because when you redirect the expired domain to your website then the all backlinks of the expired domain point to your website. That is the reason why most of the people use it and that trend is increasing. But removing it also destroys your ranking if you do not use it correctly. You can read about expired domain 301 redirect in detail.
302 Redirect
A 302 redirect is a temporary redirection of one URL to another URL. Old url forwarding users and search engines crawler to new URL destination. This way authority does not pass to the new destination URL.
This is due to the page redesign, fixing some issues. Search engines know that you will return to the old page again that they do not remove for the results. It’s a safe redirection because you can break the direction at any time without any problem.
This does not pass the link juice of the previous page.
When use it?
- When you want to keep the old page
- just want to rank other page
- For redesigning page or website
- fixing some issues
Redirection Effects
Redirection is not as simple as looks. Most of the people make mistakes during the redirection. As i earlier said, users do not know about the redirection but the search engines know it. They rank and remove the page/domain according to the given direction. If you have mistakenly used the wrong direction it will hurt your ranking, sales and traffic. Try to avoid it if you really need to redirect. When you redirect the backlinks are pointing to the new domain no matter which redirection you have use.
How fast to redirect an old page to new one?
When the redirection is done then the search engine takes time to see the changes. You can help them to see the changes fast. You need to submit the new created page first when that page is live then submit the old page on your Console. It will help Google to see the changing fast. If you do not do this then change will be seen when Google will crawl your website again.
How to redirect?
- If your website is built on WordPress then there are plugins which can be used to redirect from one page to another.
- If your website is built on the apache you can access the .httpacces and add the code of redirection.
- You can redirect from the domain records there is an option of domain redirection you add the new destination domain and place the redirection.
What is the best way to redirect a website?
If you are using the whole website redirection then use the 301 redirect. If you want permanent redirection then use 301 else use 302 for temporary use.
Can you reverse a 301 redirect?
Yes, you can reverse a 301 redirect but it has a process which you need to follow.