How to Create 301 Redirects
Creating 301 redirects is easy. Learning how to create a 301 redirect is easy to pick up and by the end of this quick how to guide then you will know all that you need to know to make 301 redirects quickly and easily on the fly.
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Requirements to be Able to do 301 Redirects
The only real requirements for setting up a 301 redirect is that you have a Linux server and that you have access to your .htaccess file and are able to edit it and upload it to your server (you may not even have to upload it to your server as many popular server management software programs like cPanel allow you to edit your .htaccess file directly from your website’s cPanel).
How .htaccess 301 Redirects are Used
A 301 redirect is used to permanently redirect one page to another page on either the same domain or a totally different domain. 301 redirects are used in a number of different very common scenarios:
- Changing File Names and/or Extensions: 301 redirects can be used if you are changing the file structure of your site or changing the file extensions of your site (i.e. moving from html to php). This is very important to do because if your 301 redirects are set up properly then people typing in yourdomain.com/oldfilename.html would be redirected to yourdomain.com/newfilename.php or whatever page you specify in your .htaccess.
- Moving to a New Domain: 301 redirects are key when moving your website files to a new domain name. This way if people visit an old page on your old domain name then they will be automatically redirected to the appropriate new page on your new domain name. This way if people type in or click on a link to yourolddomain.com/page1.html then they would be automatically redirected to yournewdomain.com/page1.html.
- SEO: 301 redirects are great for SEO reasons because they tell the search engine spiders that the page you are redirecting has moved permanently. 301 redirects also have the best chance of passing “link juice” or link value from existing back links pointing to old pages to the new pages that you set up the 301 for.
- Affiliate Links: 301 redirects are commonly used for cloaking affiliate links because they can enhance the user experience (if used properly) and keep your website from linking directly to an affiliate program. These type of links are typically set up by creating a page on your website with a user friendly looking file name and then setting up a 301 redirect so that every time someone clicks on that link then they are automatically forwarded to the affiliate offer on the merchant site. For example, instead of linking directly to merchantxyz.com/affiliate-offer.html you would create a folder in your site called “click” and a page on your site called “merchantxyz.html” and then set up a 301 redirect that would automatically send people clicking on yourdomain.com/click/merchantxyz.html to merchantxyz.com/affiliate-offer.html (typically you would add the rel=”nofollow” tag to the link on your site that points to yourdomain.com/click/merchantxyz.html).
- PHP: 301 redirects can be used in place of a PHP jump script redirect but if one has a lot of affiliate program links to redirect then often it can make sense to set up a simple PHP script that will redirect users from a link to the affiliate offer.
Writing 301 Redirects
Ok, let’s start writing some 301 redirects. Here are a few different examples:
EXAMPLE #1: You changed a file name for a file on your website. The old file name is /old-page.html and the new file name is /new-page.html. You would set up a 301 redirect by typing this into your .htaccess:
redirect 301 /old-page.html http://www.yourdomain.com/new-page.html
EXAMPLE #2: You changed a page on your site from being a .html page to a .php page. The old file name is /your-page.html and the new file name is /your-page.php. You would set up a 301 redirect by typing this into your .htaccess:
redirect 301 /your-page.html http://www.yourdomain.com/your-page.php
EXAMPLE #3: You would like to show an affiliate offer on your website. The link to the affiliate offer is merchantdomain.com&affid=348665209. You would rather have a more user friendly looking URL be used for the link because some people may not want to click on an affiliate offer or they may not understand what the extra numbers (your affiliate tracking ID so that you get credit) really represent. You would first create a new page called /merchant-offer.html on your site to place in a folder you name “click” (or whatever you like) that will be used in place of your affiliate link. You then set up your link on your site pointing to yourdomain.com/click/merchant-offer.html and be sure and use the rel=”nofollow” and enter this into your .htaccess:
redirect 301 /click/merchant-offer.html http://www.merchantdomain.com&affid=348665209
Now that you know how to set up 301 redirects be sure and try out our domain name finding tools to find some great domain names that can help to make you an online success.
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