3. Audit your redirects.

Why are you using a redirect?
Why would you use a redirect? Very simple, if you do not do this, chances are that your visitor will end up on a 404 page. Sorry wrong address, no information!

Actually, it is very simple, if you move, you also indicate what your new address is?

Otherwise, the mail will continue to end up at the old address with all the negative consequences that entails. Make sure you have a correct referral, even if you have temporarily moved elsewhere. Let the world know! In our online world, this means, let the search engines know. Not or incorrectly applying good redirects can have negative consequences for your SEO. What is SEO?

What types of redirects are there?
There are different types of redirects you can use. If you want to know more about this, look within Google support for the different codes such as 301, 302, 303, 307 and 308.

I think you should ask yourself a question when you make a URL change in your website. Is the change permanent or temporary? I treat both situations for you to give you insight into when you apply them. This with a view to the findability of your website and SEO value that a page has built up.

Permanent redirect:

The moment you have changed a URL, in whatever way, and this is a permanent change, you use the 301 redirect. This stands for Moved Permanently. This type of redirect tells the search engines that the reference to the new URL is permanent. The value, SEO value, which has been built up is given to the new URL. Easy said.

Temporary redirect:

It may also be that there is a temporary relocation of the URL, then use a 302 redirect. This indicates that it is a temporary referral. The SEO value is not passed on. Even though people often want to discuss this. We keep it simple. Temporary is not final, so the value can stay with the old URL. Only with a definitive referral do we also want to transfer the value. After all, our move is temporary.

Where do I create a redirect?
There are various options, depending on various things such as hosting environment, plugins that you use or… to create redirects. I limit myself here to creating redirect rules in the .htaccess file of your website. This way you are not dependent on your host, plugin or other third party. In these examples I limit myself to the simplest form of redirects, 1 on 1 references. For example, it is quite possible to set up more complex redirects for large groups of references that refer complete groups. Ask your web builder, engineering department. Within Kwaaijongens we have Roel for that 😉

Imagine we have the following URL:

www.domeinvanjeeigenwebsite.nl/contactmetmij

A very long URL that I would like to change shorter to a more personal one. In other words, a permanent move. So a Redirect 301. In the .htaccess file we add the following line.

Syntactically, this looks like this.

Redirect 301 (space) (slash) (url path after domain) (space) http (s): // (domain) (slash) (new URL path)

In other words: Redirect 301 / contactmetmij http://www.domeinvanjeeigenwebsite.nl/contact-eric

For example, I notify the search engine that my address has been permanently changed and when I am called, I get to see the content at the new address. Fortunately, otherwise my visitor would not know who to call or email.

In case of a temporary move, I replace the number 301 by 302 and ready.

How do I check if my redirect is correct?
A simple method is to look up the page in the search engine and then click on it. Or enter the parent URL in the browser. Which will then call up the page and follow the redirect if it is set up correctly.

If you are not sure, you can create a 302 first and after checking it, adjust it to a 301 if the transfer is permanent.

The order is important for a redirect rule!