Quick Tip: Create a 301 Redirect for Your Website

A 301 redirect is basically telling the search engines that the page that you’re looking for does not exist and seamlessly directs the user to the page they should look at instead. The most common use of a 301 redirect is for directing the search engines from a domain name that starts without the WWW to one that starts with WWW or vise versa. For search engines a website that starts with WWW and the same one that starts with out the WWW are essentially two different websites. So for example if your website is www.websiteaddress.com but a user types in websiteaddress.com , the search engines will rank the two addresses separately even though they’re the same website. To eliminate this issue make sure you create a 301 redirect (ask your hosting provider to do it for you). So when the 301 redirect is set, anyone who types in websiteaddress.com they will automatically be redirected to www.websiteaddress.com and that’s what search engines like to see.

Small Business Design Resources