How to Use a 301 Redirect to Keep Your Web Pages from Dropping Off the Face of the Earth
 by John Heard

The Complete Guide to Mastering the Art of Server Redirection
How to Use a 301 Redirect to Keep Your Web Pages from Dropping Off the Face of the Earth - by John Heard & Ian Cook

dead_end.pngLet me tell you about the single worst thing most people do to their site...

They Move Pages.

Sounds so simple, right? Change a file name, put an article in a different directory, or even give the site a new domain name.

However, changing any aspect of your page's URL (without leaving a forwarding address) will result in broken links, broken bookmarks, and de-indexed pages—not to mention lost traffic and revenues for your site!

This includes changing any of the following...

  • Changing a Web page file name, such as flower.html to flowers.html.
  • Changing a Web page file extension, such as .html to .php.
  • Changing a directory name, such as /directory/file.html to /directory2/file.html.
  • Modifying (or leaving off) URL variables that are necessary to retrieve a page, such as http://www.domain.com/index.asp?id=45 (where id=45 is a necessary variable).
  • Changing a subdomain name, such as www.domain.com/phpbb to forum.domain.com.
  • Changing the path or file name for images, PDF's, and other file types. There are multiple indexable file types such as .jpg, .gif, .pdf, .doc, etc. and these files can rank and bring in traffic. If you're getting traffic and or links to these fi...

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