Moving a website from one URL to another is a common practice due to many reasons, and it’s quite simple to do as well. However, there are things you need to consider while moving your website. Just like your mail, your website is important too. When people change mail addresses, they may forget to have their mail forwarded to the new address. That’s why mail forwarding is important. Moving a website requires something similar to mail forwarding be done as well, where your visitors will be sent to the right place. That is what we call a 301 redirect.

In addition to this purpose, a 301 redirect is also helpful in maintaining the authority of your domain, and keep your search rankings while you change to a new URL. The 301 redirect, like its name suggests, redirects visitors and search engines to your new URL even if they requested your old URL, without having to type the new one in the browser.

A brief definition

301 redirect is not temporary. It’s a permanent redirect which directs visitors from your old URL to the new one. Just like branches to a tree, the 301 redirect also links various URLs to a single source which makes it easier for search engines to rank those addresses based on domain authority. 

Why it’s important for marketers

There are 3 main reasons why 301 redirect is important for marketers.

• To maximize domain authority by associating common web conventions with one URL
  
• To rebrand a website with a different URL
  
• To direct traffic to a website from other URLs the organization owns 
  

Other redirects

As mentioned before, 301 redirect is permanent. There are temporary redirects that can be useful in certain scenarios. Search engine optimization Dubai recommends using permanent redirects as it transfers the inbound links from the old domain to the new one, thereby maintaining search traffic and preventing drops in search rankings.

When a website is undergoing maintenance, and visitors have to be temporarily redirected to a different owned URL for access to content, a 302 temporary redirect can be used.

301 Redirect mistakes that could impact your search engine optimization

• Failing to set up a 301 redirect from all different iterations of your brand’s domain
  
• Migrating to a new domain without setting up a 301 redirect
  
• Using 302 temporary redirect where 301 is more recommended
  
• Not setting up redirects to older links that are more familiar to regular visitors