How To 301-Redirect

The www uses a protocol we are all familiar with designated as HTTP. Basically, the "redirect" is a response beginning with a numerical status code (e.g. 301 = moved permanently), that tells the browser to take some specific action. Therefore, we can asuume that a "301 Redirect" does exactly as the phrase implies; that is, the directive maps an old URL into a new one by asking the client to go back and obtain the requested resource at some new location. There are numerous reasons why a webmaster might want to impliment a 301Redirect:

• A website has been moved to a new domain.
• A page or group of pages might be moved to a new domain.
• The location (URL) of a page or group of pages may have changed on the same domain.

In the case of the last example, perhaps previous visitors to your website have bookmarked a page they enjoyed upon some previous visit to your website. You (or your webmaster) may have recently moved or renamed the location of the page, consequently changing the URL. In order to prevent the visitor from receiving the "404 File Not Found" error, the 301 Redirect can be implemented to instruct the browser to look for the page at the new URL, as it has been permanently moved.

Search engines store URL's in their data centers. Since the latency period between updates of these data centers varies - the 301 Redirect can be implemented to route the search requests to the currenct & correct URL. Additionally, many websites and/or pages have attained a credible status with search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) and perhaps have even been assigned a Google Page Rank (a measure of credibilty). Webmasters and website owners work diligently over long periods of time to attain acknowledgements of trust, credibility and authority, which can be lost if a page is renamed or a website is moved to a new domain - without implementing a proper 301 Redirect.

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