In the world of marketing, there is no denying the incredible power of SEO – for many businesses, this can be the difference between an explosion of success in the digital space and floundering or grappling desperately for sales and traffic.
SEO can make a huge difference, and HTTP redirect codes can play a key role in this – they are also an element that is typically overlooked by many marketers.
You may be wondering just what HTTP redirect codes are, how they can impact your business, and why you need to worry about them – and we have all of the information you need to help your business thrive and evolve to the next level in no time.
What Is SEO?
Before we take a closer look at HTTP redirect codes in detail, it is worth gaining a clear overview of just what we mean by SEO, and what this looks like in practice.
SEO refers to Search Engine Optimisation, which is essentially the process of making sure that your website appears as high up on search engine results pages (SERPs) as possible.
This means that when people do a search online, your site will appear towards the top of the list of results – often appearing above those sites with more content than yours, but less relevant keywords.
This is incredibly important because if people click through to your site from SERPs, then they are far more likely to convert into paying customers.
The first thing to understand is that HTTP redirect codes are not actually related to SEO per se. They are simply one part of the overall strategy that needs to be implemented to ensure that your site ranks highly in search engines.
The second thing to understand is that there are different types of HTTP redirect codes. Some are designed to improve rankings, while others are used to direct visitors away from certain URLs, or even to specific landing pages.
The third thing to remember is that HTTP redirects are only one component of a successful SEO campaign. There are other factors such as backlinks, page speed, mobile optimization, social media presence, etc. that must all be taken into consideration.
So What Is A Http Redirect Code?
An HTTP redirect code is simply a URL that points to another location on your site. It is usually placed within the HTML code of your website, and it tells Google where to send any requests made by users who land on your site via a link from another source.
When someone clicks on a link that takes them to your site, their browser sends a request to Google asking for the page that was linked to.
When Google receives the request, it checks whether it has already indexed the page in question, and if so, it returns the data that it has stored about that page.
If it hasn’t yet indexed that page, however, then it will return a “404” error message, telling the user that the page does not exist.
In order for Google to know that the page exists, it needs to store some sort of record of it somewhere. The way that it stores these records is by creating links to each page on your site. These are known as “backlinks”.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are basically references to your site that point to the pages on your site. They are created whenever someone else publishes a piece of content that includes a hyperlink to your site.
In addition to this, backlinks are also generated when someone shares your site on social networks, or when you comment on other websites.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
Backlinks are extremely valuable for two reasons: Firstly, they tell Google that your site is an authority in its field, and therefore should rank higher in searches for similar terms.
Secondly, they provide a reference point for Google to use when deciding how to display your site in search results.
If you have lots of backlinks pointing to your site, then Google will assume that the information contained within your site is authoritative, and will therefore place your site at the top of the SERPs.
How Do You Get More Backlinks?
There are many ways to get more backlinks to your site. One of the easiest ways to do this is through guest blogging. This involves writing articles for other sites, which include a link back to your own site.
Another good method is to create useful content on relevant forums, and then share it with other members.
Another great way to generate backlinks is to participate in online discussions. By answering questions and providing helpful advice, you can help people out, and in turn, they may choose to link to your site.
Finally, there’s nothing wrong with using paid advertising to promote your site. Many companies offer services that allow you to pay per click (PPC) campaigns, which means that every time someone visits your site because of one of your ads, you’ll be charged.
The best thing about PPC is that it doesn’t cost much money, but it can still result in a significant number of visitors coming to your site.
Why Are Http Redirect Codes So Important?
HTTP Redirect codes are an important element of your SEO campaign, and this is largely because they are used to redirect users from one URL to another.
As we mentioned earlier, backlinks are essentially references to your website that point to the pages located on your site. When someone clicks on one of these links, their browser requests the page that was linked to.
However, sometimes, instead of returning the requested page, the server responds with a different page – a “redirect code”, or “HTTP redirection”.
The reason that HTTP redirect codes are important is that they tell Google that the page has moved, and so it should update the index accordingly.
If you don’t want to move your site, then you can simply set up a 301 redirect code, which tells Google that the old page no longer exists.
What Are The Types of HTTP Redirect?
There are several types of HTTP redirects:
Permanent Redirect
A permanent redirect is exactly what it sounds like – it’s a permanent redirect. This means that once you’ve set it up, it will never go away. You can only use them within the domain that you own.
Temporary Redirect
A temporary redirect is similar to a permanent redirect, except that it expires after a certain period of time. This allows you to keep track of how many people visit each page on your site, and see how long they stay before leaving.
302 Moved Permanently
This type of redirect is used when you need to temporarily redirect a user to a different page on your site. It’s not a permanent redirect, so it won’t affect your ranking.
307 Temporary Redirect
This type of redirect isn’t really a redirect at all. Instead, it’s used to let search engines know that there’s something wrong with the link that they’re following.
What To Be Aware Of With Http Redirect Codes For SEO
There are several things to keep in mind when implementing 301 and 302 redirect codes. Here are some of the most important things to know about these codes:
Don’t Use Too Many 301 Or 302 Redirects
You need to avoid creating too many redirects because this can slow down your server. Also, you may run into issues with your hosting provider when you exceed the limit of allowed redirects.
We will explore these types of redirects in greater detail shortly.
Make Sure That All Links Are Correctly Set Up
If you’re using a 301 or 302 redirect code, make sure that all of your links work correctly. This will ensure that people who click on them are sent to the correct URL.
Be Careful About Using A 301 Or 302 Redirect Code On An Existing Page
When you use a 301 or 302 redirect on an existing page, you might end up breaking the functionality of that page. So, before you do this, make sure that the page works properly.
When Should I Use Redirects?
Now that we have taken a closer look at the nature of redirects, you may be wondering when you should use redirects.
Redirects should be used whenever possible. They provide a quick solution to a problem that would otherwise take much longer to fix.
For example, if you receive a complaint about a specific link on your site, you can simply redirect visitors to another page instead of fixing the issue manually.
URL Redirect: When it’s just a few URLs
A simple URL redirect is great for small sites where there aren’t too many pages. If you only have a handful of pages, then you don’t really need to worry about having too many redirects.
However, if you have more than a dozen pages, you’ll want to consider using a different method – redirects should not be used when you have hundreds of pages.
This is because each redirect takes time to process. And if you have thousands of pages, you’ll spend hours processing redirects.
Use Redirects When Your Site Is Under Construction
Another good reason to use redirects is when you’re under construction. If you’re building a new site, then you’ll probably start by setting up a temporary URL. However, once you launch your site, you’ll want to create permanent URLs.
Website redirect: when it’s about an entire website
When you redirect an entire website, you’re performing a complete overhaul. In other words, you’re changing everything from the homepage to every single page on your site.
This type of redirect is done when you’ve completely redesigned your site. You’ll also perform this type of redirect when you’re moving your site from one domain name to another.
Keep In Mind The Difference Between Redirects & Mapping
The difference between a redirect and a mapping is pretty straightforward. A redirect sends traffic to a different URL while a mapping directs traffic to a different location within the same URL.
So, if you want to send someone to a different page within the same URL, you’d use a mapping. But if you want to send traffic to a different URL altogether, you’d use a redirect.
How Can I Boost My SEO?
As we have mentioned, redirects are an important element of SEO – but they are not the only tool that you should be using. Some other powerful tools for boosting the SEO of your site include:
Keyword Research & Optimization
This is one of the most important aspects of SEO. If you don’t find keywords that describe what your business does, then you won’t be able to rank high for those terms.
Keywords research and optimization help you get more traffic by targeting the right keywords and increasing the chances of ranking well in search results.
Link Building
Links play an essential role in SEO. Without them, no matter how well optimized your content is, you won’t be able to rank highly in search engines; this means that link building is very important for any SEO campaign.
As we have previously touched upon, backlinks are very important for SEO. The more backlinks you have, the higher your rankings will be, and so you should make sure that you focus on building quality backlinks from relevant websites.
Content Marketing
Content creation is another essential part of SEO. When you create content for your site, you give yourself a better chance of ranking well for certain keywords.
It is not enough to simply churn out content, however; in order to build links, you need to write quality content.
Content marketing helps you generate links naturally through guest posting, social media sharing, etc. To create quality content, you need to understand the needs of your audience, and this involves:
Knowing What People Are Searching For
You can’t just publish random articles without knowing what people are searching for. It doesn’t make sense to write something that nobody wants!
Having An Audience In Mind
Once you know what people are looking for, you can target your writing toward their interests.
Understanding How People Find Stuff Online
If you want to increase your chances of getting found online, you need to focus on creating great content that people will actually want to read.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another great way to boost your SEO. You can easily share posts on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.
How Do I Get Started With Https Redirects?
How do you find out if your website is doing well or poorly in terms of SEO? Well, one way is to use a tool to determine how well your site is ranking. Here are two tools that you can use:
- Google Analytics – This is a free service provided by Google. It allows you to track the traffic coming to your website. You can then use this data to figure out which pages are most popular.
- Alexa Traffic Rank (ATR) – This is an alternative to Google Analytics. It’s similar to Google Analytics but it’s owned by Amazon.com. It’s free to sign up for and gives you access to detailed statistics about your visitors.
Both of these tools work by tracking visits to your site, and this can be valuable information. However, they don’t tell you everything about your site’s performance. So, you might want to look into other types of tools as well.
One type of tool that we suggest checking out is called a keyword research tool. A keyword research tool helps you identify the keywords that people are typing into search engines when they’re trying to find websites like yours.
Keyword research tools are useful because they allow you to find out exactly what words people are typing into search engine queries. Once you have this information, you can create content around those keywords.
What Are The Main Http Redirect Status Codes?
There are a number of HTTP redirect status codes that you will need to get your head around, and the main ones include:
100 Continue
The 100 Continue code indicates that the client should continue processing the current request, rather than waiting for the next request to be processed.
This is typically used when a web server receives multiple requests from a single connection, and it would be too expensive to process them all immediately. Instead, it will wait until the first request finishes before starting to process any more.
200 OK
The 200 OK code indicates that the web page returned by the server successfully completed the request. This is commonly seen when users click on links in emails and end up on pages that look exactly the same as the page they were expecting.
It also happens when users enter search terms into a search engine and find what they’re looking for.
204 No Content
The 204 no content response code indicates that the server has fulfilled the request, but did not need to return anything in the body of the response.
This is most commonly seen when a web server returns information about the state of a file without actually sending the file itself.
206 Partial Content
The 206 partial content code indicates that the server understands the content type of the request entity (in this case, application/XML), and can provide part of the response using that media type.
In other words, the server believes that the client is requesting a partial representation of the document indicated by the Request-URI.
If the origin server supports ranges, then the enclosed range is treated as a valid part of the response; otherwise, the recipient MUST NOT attempt to interpret such a payload within a range directive.
Note: Ranges are not allowed inside fragment identifiers because there is no mechanism to identify fragments within the URI reference.
301 Moved Permanently
This redirect code means that the web server has moved the requested resource permanently to a new location. This is usually used when you are moving a website or blog from one domain name to another.
What Is A 301 Redirect Code?
A 301 redirect code is essentially a permanent redirect code, meaning that once it’s been set up, it won’t change until you manually remove it.
It’s often used when moving a site, as this ensures that all of the links to the old page remain valid and that any incoming traffic is redirected to the new location.
301 redirects are also very effective if you’re trying to boost your rankings by getting rid of low-quality backlinks. Once you’ve removed the bad links, you can set up a 301 redirect to ensure that the same amount of traffic goes to your site.
301 redirects are also very useful when you’re trying to increase the visibility of a particular page on your site. Say, for example, that you have a page called “About Us” on your site.
If you decide to add some new information to this page, you could easily set up a 301 redirect, so that anyone who comes to the About Us page will automatically be taken to the updated version.
302 Found
The 302 Found code indicates that the web server has temporarily moved the requested page to a different location. This could happen if there was some kind of error with the original request, or if the user redirected to the wrong URL.
How To Use 301 And 302 Redirect Codes In Your SEO Campaign
You’ll find that using 301 and 302 redirect codes in your SEO campaign is a great way to improve your search engine rankings. They’re easy to implement, and they work well for both internal and external linking.
301 and 302 Redirect Codes offer a number of advantages for your SEO campaign, and these include:
If you use a 301 or 302 redirect code, then users will be able to navigate to pages that aren’t working properly. This makes it easier for them to find their way around your website.
Improving Page Rankings
When you use a 301 or a 302 redirect code, you get an opportunity to influence the rankings of your pages. By setting up a 301 redirect code, you can make sure that the same amount of visitors end up going to the new page.
Boosting Traffic
When you use a 301 or 3002 redirect code, you give yourself more opportunities to drive traffic to your site. As mentioned earlier, a 301 redirect code lets you create a permanent link between two pages.
When someone clicks on one of those links, they’ll be redirected to another page on your site.
Redirecting Old Pages
Another advantage of using 301 and 302 redirects is that you can help redirect old pages to newer versions. If you want to update a page on your site, but don’t want to lose any of its existing content, then you should consider using a 301 redirect code.
The Best Way To Implement 301 And 302 Redirects In Your Site
The best way to implement 301 and 302 redirects in your site is by using a third-party tool. There are plenty of tools available online that allow you to quickly and easily create 301 and 302 redirects.
Some of the most popular ones include:
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools is a free service offered by Google. It’s designed to help webmasters manage their websites, including setting up 301 and 302 redirects, as well as other tasks such as crawling.
WebSite Auditor
WebSite Auditor is a paid tool from Efficient Digital Media. It offers a lot of features, including 301 and 302 redirect management. The software also comes with a 30-day trial version, which means you can try it out without paying anything upfront.
Website Grader
Website Grader is a free tool that allows you to check how many errors your website has. You can use this tool to see if you have any broken links.
It also gives you access to a list of potential problems that could affect your website’s performance.
W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache is a powerful caching plugin that helps speed up your website. It includes a feature called “URL Rewriting,” which lets you set up custom rules for your URLs.
These rules let you automatically change URLs so that they match the structure of your site.
303 See Other
The 303 See Other code is used when the user is redirected to a page that has been identified as being useful but isn’t currently available. This may occur if the page is temporarily unavailable, or if the page is only accessible via a special link.
304 Not Modified
The 304 status code indicates that the target resource has not changed since the last time it was retrieved from the origin server.
This is commonly seen with static resources like images, stylesheets, scripts, etc., where the client doesn’t want to load something again that it already has cached locally.
307 Temporary Redirect
The 307 temporary redirect code indicates that the web browser has sent a request for a specific resource, but that the web server does not wish to return the resource at that time.
Instead, it wishes to send back a different resource. This might happen if a user clicks on a bookmark or an email link, and they end up on a page that is not yet ready.
308 Permanent Redirect
The 308 permanent redirect code indicates that the requested resource has permanently moved to a new location. The reason for this change is not specified by the HTTP specification.
However, it is often used when a user clicks on a link in an email message and ends up on a page that looks very similar to the page he/she wanted to visit.
400 Bad Request
The 400 bad request code indicates that the request could not be understood by the server due to malformed syntax.
This usually means that the request contained characters outside of those permitted by the character set(s) defined in the Accept header field or the Content-Type header field. These invalid characters are removed prior to parsing by the server.
The 401 unauthorized code indicates that the request requires authentication. Typically, this occurs when the user does not have permission to access the requested resource.
402 Payment Required
The 402 payment required code indicates that the request cannot be fulfilled because the server requires that the requester pay a fee before fulfilling the request.
403 Forbidden
The 403 forbidden code indicates that the request was valid, but that the server refuses to fulfill it.
This can indicate many things, such as that the server is overloaded and unable to handle the request, or that the server owner does not allow access to the requested resource.
404 Not Found
The 404 not found code indicates that no document matches the given URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). This happens when the requested resource is missing, or when the server returns a response other than 200 OK.
405 Method Not Allowed
The 405 method not allowed code indicates that the method specified in the request line is not supported by the resource identified by the request target.
406 Not Acceptable
The 406 not acceptable code indicates that the request should be rejected because the server is unwilling to accept the request without modification.
This includes situations where the server refuses to process the request without a validator, without sufficient credentials, or without sufficient authorization headers.
407 Proxy Authentication Required
The 407 proxy auth reqd code indicates that the request must first pass through an authentication mechanism provided by a proxy.
The proxy receives the request from the client, determines whether the request is authenticated, and passes the request along with any relevant cookies to the origin server.
If the request is authentic, then the origin server responds back to the proxy with the appropriate status code.
408 Request Timeout
The 408 timeout code indicates that the server timed out while waiting for the request to complete. This can happen if the server is busy handling another request when the request arrives.
It can also occur if the server is under load and simply did not have time to respond to the request within the allotted time frame.
How Do I Know If My Website Is A Good Candidate For Https Redirect Codes?
A good candidate for HTTPS redirection codes is a website that is regularly updated, has lots of pages, and offers plenty of information about its products and services. These are all signs that your site will be well received by search engines.
What Is The Best Way To Find Out More Information About Https Redirect Codes For SEO?
The best place to start learning more about SEO is to read some articles online, or check out one of the range of books on the subject; these days, there are a huge array of free e-books available on Amazon.com, and many of these cover different topics related to SEO.
You can also watch videos on YouTube. There are thousands of videos on YouTube about SEO. Just search for “SEO” and you’ll see all kinds of videos.
If you are super keen to learn, you can even attend seminars and conferences where experts discuss SEO. This is a good option because you can ask questions and learn new techniques.
Final Thoughts
Getting your head around HTTP redirect codes may seem like a challenge, but this is one area where it is well worth putting the time and work in; when you understand how HTTP codes impact your SEO, you are one step closer to creating a site your customers will love.
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