Redirect is a method to forward users and bots from one URL to another URL. A correct redirect method helps search engines to decide if the page’s authority or PageRank also need to forward or not.
You can read more about the page rank here. http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html
When we shift our page content from the old URL to the new URL, we need to transfer the page’s authority. For such a purpose, we use a piece of code. When a user tries to open the old URL, the code will show them the new URL instead of the older one. The process of this is called redirect.
Types of Redirect
There are two types of Redirects.
- Permanent redirect (301)
- Temporary redirect (302)
When to use Permanent Redirect (301)
When you shift the content or the context of the content as a completely new article to new page permanently, you should use 301 redirect. Following are the cases for the permanent redirects.
- Transferring site from HTTP to HTTPS
- Changing the domain name
- Deleting the page
- Merging the website
When to use Temporary Redirect (302)
When you shift the content temporarily and intend to come back again, you should use 302 redirect. 302 will not let the page authority transfer. It tells search engine that the page is being moved temporarily. Following are the cases for the temporary redirects.
- Redesigning the page
- Resolving any issue with page
- Making any updates on website or on the page.
How to use redirects
If you are using WordPress, there is a bunch of plugins that help you redirect one page to another without any coding knowledge and touching the .htaccess file. Plugins can help you set both redirects according to the need.