What is a 301 redirect?

Introduction

When shopping around to find an SEO agency, it’s very easy to get confused by all of the marketing jargon that is often used.

For example, you may e-mail around various seo companies for a quote. The business may then get back to you with a quote that is full of complicated seo jargon.

Sometimes businesses will state that your website has a number of 404 pages, and that a business should implement 301-redirects.

This just sounds confusing, and sometimes a business owner will be put off from investing.

However here at our agency we do things differently, we do this by explaining things clearly.

So, within this blog post, we are going to explain what a 301 redirect is, and how it may be useful for your business.

What exactly is a 301 redirect?

Have you ever been looking for an item to buy online, clicked the link, yet you landed on a 404 page?

Some people will get annoyed with a business when they can’t get to the product they want. This can result in a visitor simply choosing another business.

So, some business implements 301 redirects, this means that when that page on a company website is removed, a redirect is put in place to send the visitor to another page.

For example, you may well be looking for a kitchen for your home, and you find a link that describes your perfect kitchen.

Yet, that style of kitchen is no longer stocked by the business, so instead you may well be redirect to the main kitchen page.

This way you can narrow down which item you want, even though you have been redirected away from the kitchen you have originally clicked on.

What are 404 pages?

404 pages are simply broken links. This can happen a lot when a business adds loads of new products to a website.

That’s to say these new products may well be added, yet the old products are simply deleted.

Yet, Google’s algorithm may not have indexed these new products your business is selling. Instead Googlebot will have indexed the old products, and may well be sending visitors to your old products.

Resulting in visitors landing on a 404 page, the websites bounce rate most likely increasing and this is not good for your companies seo.

So, your digital marketing agency, or your website designer should implement 301 redirects where needed.

Is a 301 redirect a permanent redirect?

A lot of seo business consider 301 redirects as permanent redirects, and this is important if you want to redirect link equity.

For those that do not know, link equity simply means all the equity that is sent through backlinks to that page.

Now this is important, because most online marketing agencies will tell you that backlinks are important to seo.

In matter of fact, some agencies believe that backlinks are the most important ranking signal that there is.

This means that if your business severs these backlinks, so that they do not get redirected and pass link equity, then sometimes a business can see its rankings drop.

Google Search Console

Your business can use its Google Search Console account to find out which URL’s turn up with a 404 error.

If you run a business that is regularly adding new pages, and changing the products that you stock, your seo agency should be ensuring that they resolving any 404 pages.

Regardless of if your business has one 404 page or hundreds, you should consult with your marketing agency whether you should use 301 redirects.

Can our online marketing agency help your business?

Whether you run a small business and require help with your local seo, or you run a global business, and you require online marketing help to sell your products globally, simply put we can help.

We only ever implement the best quality white hat SEO work. We offer affordable prices, so why not give us a ring?