301 redirects are shown as a completely indispensable resource to modify, eliminate and consolidate web pages. A 301 redirect as its own name indicates, consists of permanently redirecting the URL of a website to another new one, achieving that when a user is going to access your website through the old URL, they are redirected directly to the new one without having to suffer the famous "404 error".
The importance of 301 redirection
The importance of a 301 redirect is beyond all doubt, since it is shown as the only possibility to achieve redirecting a web page in a permanent way and managing to pass the test of web search engines. We'll use 301 redirection when we perform maintenance tasks on our website, for example when we want to change the url of a page, change a directory, change the entire domain, when there are problems with duplicate content, broken urls or to establish the canonical version of the site.
There are other possibilities when performing redirects, such as meta refresh, Java Script or 302 temporary redirects, but without a doubt none come close to 301s.
The key to 301s is that they are a redirect that manages to transmit all the value that the link of the old page possesses, something indispensable if we consider that search engines pay attention to the popularity of a website based on its links.
With 301 redirects the old page is automatically removed from the index and the new one is included so that search engines can take it into account as soon as possible. In addition, it takes care of transferring the value of the previous URL to the new one. They are a great ally for web positioning on Google.
How to do them?
Performing a 301 redirect is much easier than it may seem at first. The only thing you have to do is edit a server file called ".htaccess", which is the one responsible for controlling the server configuration. It's the first element that's loaded when a user tries to access your website, in some cases even before the page appears as such. You'll be able to find it in the root of your website.
That said, you must take into account that the ".htaccess" file is really sensitive and plays a very important role, so you must be very careful when editing it, since any minimum error could completely dislocate your web page. It's recommended to make a backup of the file, just in case (better safe than sorry).
Redirects in .htaccess
1. Access the .htaccess file: To access the file you'll have to connect through an FTP system to your server and search for it until you find it. Keep in mind that being a hidden file, you'll have to enable the option to display all files. Once you've found it, open the file with any text editor.
2. Edit it: The next thing will be to edit the file properly.
3. Save: once you've made the corresponding modifications, save it again with ANSI encoding to make sure no error will appear.
Take precautions, avoid errors when editing .htaccess
You must be very careful when editing the file since a poorly made change can cause a true disaster on our website. So take precautions and make a backup just in case (better safe than sorry).
How long should they be kept?
Although 301 redirects are permanent and shouldn't be modified at any time, we know that it's really complicated to maintain a redirect for an unlimited time. But in any case, it's very important that this redirect stays active for at least a year, since search engines take between 6 and 12 months to recognize a new address.
In case you remove the redirect before search engines have recognized the new URL, you run the risk that all linked pages fall to the "404 error". So that this doesn't happen, we recommend that you notify those reference sites so they perform the update of outgoing links to your pages and that you keep redirects active for as long as possible, never less than a year.
In short, 301 redirection is fundamental to add value to your new web page and to get visits. Pay them the necessary attention and perform the redirects that are necessary and enjoy a better on-Page SEO optimization of your website.
Redirect your website and enjoy multiple advantages
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