Glossary · Technical
301 redirect.
An instruction that a page has moved permanently to a new address. Visitors and search engines both follow it, and the ranking value of the old address transfers to the new one.
Why it matters.
Redirects are what protect a site during a rebuild or a move to HTTPS. Skipping them is how businesses lose the traffic they had: the old addresses that people and other sites link to simply stop working. Chains should be avoided — one hop from old to new, not old to interim to new.
How to check it yourself.
Type an old address you know used to work. If it lands on a "not found" page rather than the new equivalent, that link and any ranking attached to it is being thrown away.
Questions
The usual questions.
How do I check 301 redirect on my own site?
Type an old address you know used to work. If it lands on a "not found" page rather than the new equivalent, that link and any ranking attached to it is being thrown away.
Your turn
Same check,
run on your site.
The check behind this page is the one we ran on every business above. Put your own address in and it will load your site on a phone screen, look at the certificate and the page age, and tell you what a visitor meets. No email, nothing stored.
Want the same for
your business?
Tell us what you do and where you work. We will look at what you have now and say plainly whether it is worth rebuilding — including when it is not.