301 Redirects can help your website visitors continue accessing parts of your ever evolving site. However, poorly implemented 301 Redirects can be disastrous on your search engine positioning, so you should be aware of where the risks lie.

What do 301 Redirects do?

301 Redirects help your site visitors keep up to date with URL changes. As sites update, URLs for pages can change. This can cause problems for past site visitors and for search engines.

301 Redirects’ main functions are to:

• Move visitors from an ‘old’ URL to the ‘new’ one you intend them to see
• Let search engines know that any ‘link juice’ from the old page should be applied to the new page.

Risks associated with redirects:

• Changing the URL of a highly ranked page can have disastrous results for search engine positions if you don’t redirect to an appropriate page relevant to the content of the old. Targeted links from external sites no longer provide the same benefit to the new page.
• Failing to utilize the correct type of redirection may result in search engines ignoring the new page, penalising new page content or worse, blacklisting your site from the search index.

How do I use 301 Redirects safely and effectively?

Setting up a 301 Redirect is usually a job for your website developer or host. An experienced SEO consultant is also a good person to manage your redirects as your site grows and expands. ??I offer redirect management as part of my comprehensive SEO services. I have over ten years’ experience in SEO. I can handle your URL changes and associated redirects with minimum disruption and maximum efficiency.