If the address of a page or your domain name changes, a 301 redirect sends visitors and Google to the new address. Without a redirect, you lose the visitors, links and rankings you have built up over the years.
What does this mean in practice?
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. If someone, or Google's crawler, visits the old address, they automatically end up at the new one. The search engine then knows the change is permanent.
Why does this matter for your business?
Without redirects, a new page address or a new domain name leads to 404 errors, and you lose visitors and rankings in Google. A 301 redirect passes most of the old page's SEO value on to the new one.
Examples and best practices
- When switching to a new website, make a list of old and new addresses.
- Redirect each old page to the page that best matches it, rather than sending everything to the homepage.
- Avoid redirect chains, such as from A to B to C.
- After the switch, check Search Console for any 404 errors.
How we do it at Ikoon
If Ikoon replaces your existing website, we set up 301 redirects from your old addresses to the new ones. That is part of our standard SEO approach. This way, you don't lose the visitors and rankings your old site has built up.