What it is
A rule saying "this page has moved to a new address for good". People and search engines following the old link land on the new page right away, and the ranking it earned moves with it.
How we use it
No site move works without it. When three sites moved from Joomla to WordPress, the redirect map was built from the real addresses of the originals: 24, 684 and 270 rules. On the studio site the old /polezno section leads to /blog.
Where it helps a business
- Moving to a new site or CMS: page addresses change, while the old ones are already in search and in bookmarks.
- Changing the domain.
- Renaming a section or merging two pages.
How we use it
- A map from real addresses. When three sites moved from Joomla to WordPress, old addresses were collected from the live originals rather than guessed: 24, 684 and 270 rules. Rankings were kept.
- Renames without losses. On the studio site an old section moved to the blog and old links lead to the new addresses.
- Checked after release. An old address must return a 301 to the right page, not to the home page.
Common problems
- Everything to the home page. Search engines treat it as an error and the pages lose their rankings.
- A temporary 302 instead of 301. The old address stays in the index and its ranking is not passed on.
- Chains. Old โ intermediate โ new: each hop costs time and some weight.
When you do not need it
A brand-new site with no history needs no redirects: there is nothing to move.