Search Engine Optimization All-In-One For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Using Redirects for SEO

In This Chapter

• Understanding when to use a redirect command

• Discriminating between the different types of redirects

• Understanding 301 and 302 redirects

• Knowing when to use Meta refreshes

• Considering JavaScript redirects

• Dovetailing your www and non-www domains properly

In your toolbox of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, the redirect tool is an important one to master. Redirects are HTML or server commands that automatically forward incoming links to another page. With this tool, you can trim outdated pages off your site without losing the visitors who still go to those pages. You can also organize many domains (root names of Web site URLs) into one site, so that they won't be competing with each other. With redirects, you can avoid creating duplicate content (Web pages that search engines see as duplicates of each other) that could damage your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). And the best part is that redirects are not hard at all to learn.

This chapter covers the four main types of redirects. We explain what each type is for, although for SEO purposes, only one type of redirect is safe to use — a 301 redirect. Then in Chapter 4 of this minibook, you discover the "how tos" of placing 301 redirects in your Web site.

Discovering the Types of Redirects

There are several different types of redirects in the world of the Internet. These commands give you a way to redirect your site visitors from one URL (the Web address of a page, ...