A SIMPLE GUIDE TO 301 REDIRECTS
Great websites are constantly evolving, they should grow and change as your business does. Content gets refreshed, services and products change, you move on. That’s completely normal. But the thing is, the internet doesn’t forget old links quite so easily. People bookmark pages, click on search results that were indexed months ago, and share links in emails that get opened long after they were sent. If those links aren’t updated when changes are made, they eventually break, and things can get messy very quickly.
And that’s where 301 redirects come into the equation. Allow us to explain…
301 REDIRECTS IN A NUTSHELL
It’s like moving house. Let’s say you’ve lived somewhere for years. Friends know the address, deliveries arrive there, and it’s probably still saved in plenty of people’s sat navs. Then you move across town but forget to tell anyone. Suddenly, parcels are turning up at the wrong place, friends are knocking on a stranger’s door, and your post is sitting in someone else’s hallway. Most people solve that problem by leaving a forwarding address. Anyone who goes to the old house gets told where you’ve moved so they can find you straight away.
A 301 redirect works in exactly the same way, just for websites instead of houses. When someone tries to visit an old page, the website simply says “that page has moved” and automatically sends them to the new address instead. Behind the scenes, the server sends a message called “301 – Permanently Moved.” That message tells browsers and search engines that the page hasn’t disappeared, it’s just moved somewhere else. From the visitor’s perspective, the process is seamless. They click a link expecting to land somewhere useful, and they still do.
WHY BUSINESSES USE 301 REDIRECTS
There are lots of situations where redirects quietly keep a website running smoothly. A common one is a rebrand or domain change. If your company moves from something like oldbrand.com to newbrand.com, people will still be clicking links to the old address for months or even years and getting nowhere. Redirects make sure those visitors still arrive at your new website instead of landing on an error page.
They’re also important when pages get removed. Maybe you stopped selling a product, retired an old service page, or deleted an outdated blog post. If other websites are still linking to that page, a redirect sends visitors to the closest relevant page instead of leaving them stuck with a “page not found” message.
The same goes when you’re improving or combining content. For example, if you wanted to merge several short blog posts into one much stronger guide. You’d need to redirect all the older pages that are no longer in use to the new page so anyone finding any of those original links is automatically taken to the updated version.
Sometimes the reason is simply tidying things up. Older websites often end up with messy page addresses that aren’t very readable, and search engines don’t tend to favour them either. Cleaning those links up into something clearer and more descriptive can make your website easier for both visitors and Google to understand. It helps keep things simple, intuitive, and easier to navigate, which is exactly what search engines like to see. So, the last thing you want is to become your own roadblock by forgetting to use redirects, because without them, the original links stop working, and any rankings those pages had built up can quickly disappear.
301 VS 302 REDIRECTS
While we’re on the topic of 301 redirects, you might also hear about their slightly less famous cousin: the 302 redirect. It works in a similar way, but it’s used when a change isn’t meant to be permanent. Think of it like a shop that closes temporarily for renovations. While the work is being done, customers are directed somewhere else so they can still find the business. Signs point them to the temporary location, but everyone expects the shop to reopen at the original address once the work is finished.
A 302 redirect works much the same way. Visitors are sent somewhere else for now, but the original page is expected to come back later. A 301 redirect, on the other hand, tells browsers and search engines that the move is permanent and the new address is where people should go from now on.
6 COMMON REDIRECT MISTAKES TO AVOID
Redirects are helpful, but, like most things on a website, they can cause problems if they’re not set up correctly. A few small mistakes can quickly turn something useful into something frustrating for your customers. So here’s a few of those common mistakes to keep in mind…
- The most common we see is no redirect being added at all. A page gets renamed, moved, or deleted, and whoever made the change assumes the website will somehow sort itself out. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Websites don’t automatically know where an old page should point. If nothing is set up, anyone clicking the original link simply lands on a “page not found” error instead.
- Another is when redirects start stacking on top of each other. Imagine clicking a link that sends you to another page, only for that page to immediately send you somewhere else again. Then that page sends you somewhere else. It’s a bit like asking someone for directions and being passed from pillar to post. Each extra step slows things down and makes the journey messier than it needs to be, and then suddenly you decide that it’s not worth the faff and you go elsewhere.
- On a similar note, we see a lot of cases where redirects send people in circles. This happens if two pages are set to redirect to each other. Someone clicks a link, gets sent to another page, and that page sends them straight back again. The browser keeps trying to follow the instructions until it eventually gives up and shows an error message.
- Sometimes the redirect technically works, but it sends people somewhere that doesn’t make sense. For example, if someone clicks a link expecting a specific product or article but ends up on a completely unrelated page, it feels confusing. Most visitors will simply leave rather than try to figure out where the information went.
- There’s also mix-ups that happen when the wrong type of redirect is used. Like we just discussed, some redirects are meant for temporary changes, while others are meant for permanent moves. If the temporary 302 type is used by mistake instead of a 301, search engines will assume the original page is still the main one. That means the new page doesn’t benefit from the visibility the old page had built up.
- Finally, we see people dealing with removed pages by sending everything to the homepage. This might feel like the simplest fix, but it is not helpful. If someone clicks a link expecting something specific and lands on the homepage instead, they still have to hunt around for what they were looking for. In many cases, they’ll just leave the site instead because attention spans are short.
LET US HANDLE THE DETAILS
Of course, if you’re running a business, keeping track of things like redirects probably isn’t high on your list of priorities. You’ve got customers to look after, a team to manage, and a business to grow. Website details like this are easy to miss, especially when they mostly happen behind the scenes. That’s where we come in.
This is the kind of thing we deal with every day, and it’s exactly the sort of detail we keep on top of so you don’t have to. You focus on running the business, and we’ll take care of making sure your website keeps working the way it should. At 21Digital, we’ve spent more than 20 years helping businesses manage the moving parts of their websites. As an award-winning digital agency, we know how easily small technical details like redirects can be overlooked, and how quickly that can affect traffic and visibility if they’re not handled properly.
We specialise in lead generation and e-commerce, offering services including web design, web development, SEO, Google Ads, digital consultancy, social media marketing, and email marketing and more. If you’d like a hand keeping your website running smoothly, give us a call on 01254 660 560 or send us your details through our contact form and we’ll be happy to help.
