Redirecting Your Website URL

 Redirecting Your Website URL

Redirecting Your Website URL

As time goes on through your online presence, Your site will grow and your content will increase.

When you hit this point, ensuring you have the right web hosting package is imperative. You require a package that will support the increase of traffic and users. You might have more than one domain you may want to redirect to your site or switch domains.

There are a number of reasons why you may need to redirect one website to another and below we will guide you through the process.

 

What is a Website Redirect?

Simply allowing you to click on one URL and have it send you to another URL.

Running a website, will mean that eventually this may be something you are required to do and is a valuable skill to possess.

You can utilize a redirect on either a page-by-page basis or on a URL.

The most commonly used redirect method is the ‘301’ redirect, however there a few different options when it comes to redirecting.

 

1. 301 Redirect

This is the most utilized form of redirecting, it is a full move out from one domain to another URL and takes place on browser and server level. The 301 redirect is a permanent redirection. Search engines will in time fully index a 301 redirect.

 

2. 302 Redirect

If a temporary redirect is what you want and intend on moving back to your old URL, a 302 redirect is what you want. This is a useful tool if you are redesigning a website but want it directed elsewhere throughout your redesign process.

Although, you may be better off doing a 301 redirect as 302 redirects are rarely used.

 

3. Meta Refresh

When met with a meta refresh, a website will display, ” This URL has moved, you’re being redirected. If you’re not redirected within 5 seconds, click here“.

This type of redirect does pass through some links etc., but nowhere near as much a 301 redirect.

 

 

Reasons Why You’d Use a Website Redirect

After a little background information on the specific types of redirects, we will explain why you’d want to implement them.

Below are some common scenarios where you’d want to redirect a website to another:

 

1. Redirect a Subdirectory to a Page on Your Site

Perhaps when you originally created your website you decided to create your blog page on a subdomain. Instead of your blog URL being “yourdomain.com/blog”, it’s currently “blog.yourdomain.com.”. Recently you’ve decided that its more suitable to switch your blog off of the original subdomain.

For this change, you’ll want to do a redirect.

Same process is involved for any other reason that you may have created a website or section of your website on the subdomain, and now you want to switch the URL .

 

2. Redirect Duplicated Content to the Original Page

Duplicated content throughout your website will interfere with your rankings. When you have a large website with extensive amounts of content, duplicate content is inevitable. Google struggles to figure out what page to rank when you have multiple versions.

To reduce confusion for your website visitors and improve your search engine rankings, redirecting duplicate content to the original eliminates that issue.

 

3. Redirect Multiple Domains to a Single Domain

When establishing a brand, its standard practice to purchase multiple related domains to your URL to keep your brand safe.

Rather than having unused domains sitting on the web unused, you can redirect them to your main website.

 

4. Redirect Your Old Domain to Your New One

There are a number of reasons why you would require a redirect from your old domain to your new one. Some common reasons are a total rebrand, less favorable domain that you now regret building upon and beyond the point of repair with algorithmic penalties etc.

Despite the reason, redirecting your old domain to your new domain is required. An entire website migration is a little more intensive to accomplish, but this is a good place to start.

 

5. Redirect an Old URL to a New URL

If you are changing up your existing URLs on existing pages or posts or you moved pages around and previous URLs don’t make sense anymore, then a total 301 redirect from your old URL to your new one is what you will want to execute.

This is even more relevant if you already have older posts indexed in search engines or if you have links elsewhere online.

 

Conclusion

You now probably have a grasp on the reasons you may require a redirect of a website and other reasons for redirecting. We hope this post has given you some insight into the value of redirecting and why its a skill that you should have as a notch on your belt.

 

Thank you for reading,
Simon M.
Typical Hosting.