Easiest Optimization Tip for Websites

Normal 0

false false false EN-US JA X-NONE

By Dana Severson

301 redirect. Ever heard of it? If not, it’s time to bone up.

Most of the time, it’s used in relation to change of address. When moving a site from one domain to another, you set up this redirection between the URLs. This ensures all those inbound links you’ve worked so hard to get aren’t lost during the move. Not doing so can hurt your search results, and you fall in the rankings.

But I’m not planning on moving domains, so it doesn’t apply me, right?

Wrong.

You still need a 301 redirect on your site.

Though it doesn’t really make much sense, search engines recognize

http://

and

http://www

as two different sites. You need to connect them to one another.

If you don’t, any links to your website could be split between the two version. Instead of recognizing 15 links, for example, it’s now broken out as eight links and seven links. You’re missing an opportunity to seem more authoritative by the search engines, hurting your search rank.