The Benefits of Using 301 Redirects for SEO and User Experience (UX)

Managing your website’s user experience can be a tedious process, but one that is essential if you want to improve search engine optimization (SEO) and customer satisfaction. Utilizing 301 redirects is an effective way to maintain both without making significant alterations to your web infrastructure. A 301 redirect is essentially a system designed to automatically turn webpages into even more streamlined versions of themselves in order to avoid broken or outdated links and minimize the level of hassle associated with navigating websites. In this blog post we'll explore the various benefits of implementing a good 301 redirect strategy for SEO optimization and overall user experience.

What Is a 301 Redirect?

301 is an HTTP status code the server sends to the user’s browser.

Let’s understand it more clearly from the start

• Suppose you entered the URL (example: https://www.xyz.com/) and pressed enter.

• Your browser will check the IP address for the domain.

• Then it initiates a TCP connection with the server. The browser will send the HTPP request to the server.

• The server will process the request and send an HTTP response containing status information. This includes the status code and maybe the website content you requested.

This is the process of entering a URL to load the website in your browser.

When you receive a 301 HTTP response, the URL is permanently removed.

However, sometimes errors can happen. For example, if the old URL starts with HTTP, but new browsers automatically enter HTTPS in the URL. This could lead to such 301 issues.

That’s why you need 301 redirects.

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. It tells the server that the original content is permanently moved. As a result, the server redirects the old URL to the new one.

There are five status codes with 3-digit extensions, each with a direction or message

For example −

Status codes starting from 1XX mean the server received and processed the request.

2XX means the server successfully receives, understands, and accepts your requested action.

3XX means redirection. It signifies a further action needs to be taken to complete the request.

Similarly, status codes starting from 4 mean errors from the client’s side, and 5 mean an error from the server.

Benefits of 301 Redirects for SEO and User Experience

301 redirects can help with your SEO activities. They help eliminate errors and technical issues hampering your organic visibility. 301 redirects significantly improve the page loading speed. This improves your users’ experience by providing them with information within seconds. When your users are happy, it makes Google happy too. As a result, it increases your chance of ranking higher in Google SERP.

Various ways to boost your SEO and user experience via 301 redirects

Merge or Rewrite thin Contents

Not all pages perform significantly in Google. They fail to gather the traffic or backlinks you expected. 301 redirects can help in improving SEO performance through content pruning. It is a process where you merge pages containing thin content to create something meaningful that Google may love.

There are several google algorithms, including Google Panda prefers quality over quantity. Therefore, SEO pruning is vital for editing or removing underperforming pages. You can do that by selecting some thin contents, and 301 redirects them to a link that serves the same intent.

Migrate a Blog From the Subdomain to a Subfolder

When your website has in-depth content on a specific topic, Google’s algorithms view your site as an authority or expert. As a result, your content earns a considerable quantity of backlinks. Actually, a significant part of quality backlinks is gained through content.

Having quality links help your site to ranks higher. That’s why pointing those links to a subdomain may not be significant. To do that, you need to use 301 redirects.

This is because a subdirectory concentrates your keywords within a single domain. Meanwhile, a subdomain spreads your keywords across multiple domains. In simple terms, a subdirectory establishes a powerful root domain authority.

Eliminates Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization happens when two or more pages target the exact keywords. This prevents either of them from ranking. The core issue is the intent of these pages. If the intent of both pages is the same, they practically compete with each other. This results in the cannibalization of keywords.

301 redirects help in cleaning up all the competing pages and stop keyword cannibalizations.

Merge Multiple Websites

Migrating a company blog from a subdomain to a subfolder is a good SEO practice. Similarly, if you are managing multiple websites, merging them into one is also great for SEO. It helps you receive equity and authority in several domains. This makes your site stronger with improved traffic.

Manage Discontinued Products in Ecommerce

Now if you have a page for a discounted product on your website, you can do two things. You can either redirect your visitors to a similar or updated version of the product. Secondly, you can keep the page as it is.

The first option is great for business. You can add a 301 redirect to the next best thing. This is even more beneficial than deleting a page or displaying a 404 error.

The second option about keeping the pages of discontinued pages may be a bad idea. However, users sometimes love visiting pages of old products, even if they are discontinued. A better idea is to display alternatives for discontinued products rather than removing or redirecting them. Either way, it is up to you at the end of the day.

When to Use 301 Redirects?

We can clearly establish that search engines like Google and Bing love 301 redirects. However, that doesn’t mean you should redirect all your pages. It should be done with caution and at absolute necessity.

Here are the situations that call for a 301 redirect −

Soon After Creating a Website

Soon after launching a new website, the first thing to do is redirect all domains to your preferred version.

The main versions of a site includes

• http://xyz.com

• http://www.xyz.com

• https://xyz.com

• https://www.xyz.com

You should use 301 redirects on every other site version to your preferred version. Try to keep the redirect in a one-step process.

After Moving to HTTPS

You will still find some websites running on HTTP connects. This is risky and is not preferred for handling sensitive data. That’s why it’s crucial to move your entire site to HTTPS. You need to set up 301 redirects of each HTTP URL to their HTTPS version.

Fixing 404 Pages

404 pages are broken links or pages that need fixing. Any link coming from outside your site that reaches a 404 error should be dealt with immediately.

You can contact the owner of the link to the broken page. However, this could be time-consuming. The alternate idea is to redirect those 404 links to a relevant page.

While Changing URLs

When changing a URL, you must redirect the old one to the new one. After changing a URL, Google will consider it a new page. It will again crawl it for indexing and ranking. This will take some time. However, when you use 301 redirects, it tells Google that the page is not entirely new.

After Redesigning a Website

Redesigning or restricting a website involves deleting, moving, or rewriting content. If you remove any pages, make sure to redirect them accordingly to a relevant resource.