People can create many websites in WordPress. There are situations when they have to change the URL. In such a case, users will find 404 errors on the pages. This can reduce the traffic, as users will go to other websites to look for the same content. This will also put an impact on SEO also. IN such a case, website owners need to redirect the users to the new URL and also intimate the search engines about it. There are many redirect options, which people can use for the purpose. Owners use 301 redirect to direct the users to the desired web page. Let us know about it in detail.
Before we go deeper, note it down that you might also want to think of a catchy phrase or short content to add to your 301 page to make it look even more professional and legit. You need to write short and catchy material for this. With the use of a character counter you can easily determine how many characters you have already present in the material you are writing.
What is 301 redirect?
It is one of the ways of redirection, which provides the information to the users that the location of the page has been changed. It will also take the users to that new page. Redirects are of three types, which are 301, 302, and meta refresh. The 301 redirect tells the users that the page has been relocated permanently. The 302 redirect tells that the page has been temporarily relocated.
Reasons for using 301 redirect
There are many reasons to use 301 redirects and these are as follows.
Experience of users should not be impacted
A website owner will not want that his users start visiting other websites and the traffic be reduced due to the change of location of the website. If this is the case, uses get 404 error, which is not a good sign. There are many websites that may have provided the link to the website of the owner. They will also be impacted. The 30`1 redirect will help the users to get to the new location and there will be no impact on the users’ experience.
Indexing by search engines
The URL of a website is indexed by the search engines and if its URL is changed, the owner will still want to have the same ranking that he has got with the previous URL. The 301 redirects will let the search engines know that the URL has been changed. Search engines will record them and take the users to the new URL. Search engine may take a little time to make the changes but after that, users will be redirected to the new URL.
Usage of 301 redirect in WordPress
Users can use 301 redirect in WordPress. There are many plugins that can be used for the purpose. Besides plugins, users can also use the .htaccess file to use 301 redirect.
Benefits of 301 redirect
There are many benefits of 301 redirect, which are as follows.
- People will be redirected to the new URL.
- The new URL will be indexed on different search engines.
- SEO is not needed, as traffic will not be reduced.
- Users will not see 404 errors.
Wrapping Up
The 301 redirect is very useful for the website owners as they can let the users know about the new address of the website. The need not conduct SEO to being back the traffic as the redirect will help the search engines to index the new address
