Website owners are not clear about the type of redirects to be used while making changes on their website. Redirects are generally used to send search engines and users to a different URL. There are basically two important types of website redirects, 301 and 302. Let us learn more about how both these redirects differ from each other.
Which web page redirects should you use, and when?
You need to make the right selection between these two types of redirects to maintain your present page rankings, and also solidify the positive business reputation that you have made through high-quality contents and backlinks.
Wp301Redirects is a reliable redirect WordPress plugin which helps in doing the redirect tasks, even if you are not a professional coder or programmer. You can use it to eliminate the harmful 404 pages and send the visitors to the new and updated information. It helps websites in retaining the traffic that they could otherwise lose because of broken links and deleted web pages.
About a 301 Redirect
A 301 redirect gives a message to Google and other search engines that the requested page or a WordPress post is moved permanently for a year or more. After the time-lapse, you can find whether the people are still getting redirected to your website.
If you find that they are redirected, then you need to find from where are they coming, and fix the problem before canceling the redirect. If not, you will need to continue using the 301 protocol. Why lose opportunity of getting traffic from the old and redundant pages, and still serve new contents to the readers?
Businesses can also use this permanent form of redirect when they buy new domains, but still want to send the traffic to the primary domain. It is meant for those businesses that want to establish their brand name on multiple domain names. However, it is important to maintain the relevancy with the old and new pages, in order to get the best SEO results.
About a 302 Redirect
A 302 redirect allows search engine sites to know that a webpage or a site is moved temporarily. You would need this type of redirect when you wish to send people to a new website for only a short duration, such as when rebuilding or updating a website.
A 302 redirect is useful when you plan to bring the old webpage back. It is also beneficial if you wish to test any new webpage and obtain some consumer feedback, without negatively impacting your website ranking.
Conclusion
Make sure you use the kind of redirects, as per your business objectives. Learn about the differences, and ensure that you use the right redirect for the right outcome. With a 302 redirect, there will be a temporary change of URL. So, make sure you change the temporary pages with 301 redirects to 302 redirects.
Monitor your business rankings to make sure that Google indexes your new web pages and there are no errors. If you still don’t see any improvements in the rankings, then you might have to use any of the reliable reset plugin to cleanup up the WP installation. Make sure that you have a proper backup plan for future restorations, before you reset your WordPress.
