Redirects play a very important role in your website. They are what keeps your website healthy if your webpage is not operating optimally. Redirects will direct your searchers to the one that’s operating well. But if there is no redirect provided, anyone who comes across pages or sections that have been removed would see an error, that’s why redirects are very important to those who own websites. In simple terms, redirect helps your customers to locate you when you have changed the address of your webpage. They act as a map for old and new searchers to direct them to the page that is functioning correctly.
Redirects are an important part of the practice of analysing your website, to see if you are beating out your competitors with most search engine results. They help you to see how your website is improving in terms of the number of customers who search for you.
The term redirects
This is a way provided to help the browsers and users who seem to have lost the webpage. It helps in directing them to the one that is different from the one they may have clicked on. The reason could be that the old web page is no longer available or the website is facing some technical problems. Or it could be that the website owner is out of stock on the item and hence his/her site page is currently unavailable for that item.
Why redirect web pages?
Wondering why there might be redirecting of the address of the webpage? Well, here are some of the reasons why this occurs;
- This could be that the site wants to change its name.
- The webpage has been changed or removed.
- The way that the site is functioning and the way it has been arranged is no longer functional, so it’s changed.
- The owners of the website have decided to move the site to a new software application.
- This could be that two websites have merged into one.
- This can be used when a website no longer has goods that customers needs, maybe the reason is that they are out of stock. Redirect will help the customers with the next page that can provide something similar to what they want.
- When a site deletes pages that they no longer require, redirects will send users to another page.
Types of redirects
The following are the four types of directs that you need to know about, these are;
- 301-redirect permanent
- 302-redirect moved temporarily
- Meta refresh direct
- JavaScript direct
- Redirect-see other
Below we will take a look at these types of redirects in detail so you can understand them better and decide which one is best for your particular needs.
1. 301-moved permanently
This is the kind of direct that permanently sends website users to a new web address. This type of redirect is important for SEO. And the reason it is called ‘Permanent’ is that it tells the web users that the old web address no longer exists because it has been permanently removed and has been replaced by another page. At this point, Google and other search engines will replace the old web address with a new one.
When to use 301-moved permanently
This method should only be used when you have permanently deleted the web page but still want to keep your web searchers or browsers and still stay on top of the most searched website list.
The reason for 301 redirects
- The page is broken (404)
- Want to change the name of the website
- Your website has some problems and you are trying to fix them.
2. 302- redirect moved temporarily
This type of redirect, helps in moving the website users, who visit the website, to a new web address, but this won’t be a permanent move, it will be something temporary. This means that the web users will use this web address for a short period of time until they no longer can use it.
When to use redirect 302
You may be out of stock on an item. This redirect can send searchers to similar products until the item is back in stock.
The reason for using this method?
When you are out of stock, the browser can be directed to other alternatives but these alternates are not for the browser to use permanently since they are temporary, until the item is replenished. It is also used when you want to locate the clients using location data. This method is best suited for that.
3. meta refresh redirect
Meta refresh is the kind of direction that doesn’t leave the page you want to redirect, meaning it’s permanently there and then it moves the searcher to another destination while they are trying to access their desired site. This type of redirect tells the searcher to refresh the page for the information they are trying to access or open another web address.
The direct code would look like this;
User experience
The user does not really see the original page as it is removed before they have a chance to see it but the file will be kept in the user’s history.
4. JavaScript redirect
This kind of redirect works similar to JavaScript but this method doesn’t work without a client. It’s a kind of redirect that works when a browser is using it to find the destination of the web address.
When to use JavaScript?
- You can use JavaScript to direct users to an internal page once they are logged in.
- It’s best to use when moving your site.
- You can also use it when you want to examine your original JavaScript.
5. 303 redirect-see other
This method is almost similar to redirect 302, the difference is that this one will not store the information that the browser has searched. This method tells the browser that the information that the browser was trying to access has been replaced with the other.
When to use redirect see other
- This method is well to be used when you want to want to use a different site.
When not to use this method?
- This method shouldn’t be used on permanent redirects.
