How to Use 301 and 302 Redirects Optimally

In a website 301 and 302 the most commonly used redirects. Although they are used frequently by website owners, their smart implementation can do wonders. Being the website experts from a prominent SEO and website designing company in Delhi, let us tell you how you can use them in the right way and what will be the effect of using those redirects on the SEO.

Redirects are Crucial for SEO Performance

A redirect is a technique through which the website sends or ‘redirects’ the visitor or search engine crawler or bot to a different URL. It may look like a simple process but you need to be careful while redirecting the users, depending on the purpose of redirection. Otherwise, the incorrect use of redirects can hugely affect the search engine optimization aspect of the website. 

Quick Introduction to 301 and 302 Redirects

301 and 302 are the most frequently used redirects. The 301 redirect permanently shifts your website URL whereas 302 is responsible for a temporary move. The HTTP status codes are used to display the alternative webpage where the website visitor has to be redirected. 

301 Redirect: This redirect type is helpful in retaining the SEO ranking and authority of the previous webpage to the new ones. It conveys the search engines that the previous webpage has been shifted to a new URL. Subsequently, that new webpage will get indexed by the search engine and you can modify and update your websites by changing the directives. Due to permanent redirection, all the traffic value, authority and page rank will also be shifted to the new URL.

302 Redirect: This is a temporary type of redirection and it conveys crawlers to keep and continue the indexing of the previous page. The traffic value, authority and page rank will not be shifted to the new URL. Such redirection has its own kind of impact on SEO. In this case, search engines keep ranking your old webpage. Thus you need to optimize your new web page starting from scratch with a risk of duplicacy issues between new and old web pages. If you need to take your website visitors to the old web page due to any reason, 302 redirect is an adequate choice for you. 

What are the Major Benefits of the Redirect?

While you change or update the CMS platform, modify website design or delete a specific webpage, you need to redirect your website visitor on the new URL and that’s where 301 or 302 redirect proves very useful. Also, it saves your lot of SEO efforts as it saves the SEO authority as well as the current ranking, even after the change in CMS or website design.

Why is There Need for the Redirect Anyway?

As the SEO and website designing experts, we suggest the following instances when you definitely need to use either 301 or 302 redirects.

• When the website is to be redirected to a new domain
• Specific webpage or website is no more active
• Any URL of a website is not working or broken
• If some design change is needed in the website
• A/B testing is to be done for a specific webpage
• Different webpages to be merged into one
• Website’s CMS platform needs a new URL structure

Always Assess the Impact of Redirect

As we have mentioned earlier, 301 and 302 redirects can impact the search engine ranking of the website, therefore, you need to monitor the SEO performance of your website after implementing redirects. You may need to assess the impact in a few cases. Or you can simply take the professional assistance from the experts at Webpulse Solution Pvt Ltd, a prominent SEO and Website Designing Company in Delhi. Our SEO and website specialists are capable of improving website performance in an extraordinary manner.