February 2, 2007      (Updated from our Sep. 10, 2004 article)

If all went well, the requested page is delivered by the web server and will be processed by the user’s Web browser. However, when a redirect is in effect, then your server will respond with either a '301 Moved Permanently' or, as is often the case, a '302 Moved Temporarily' type of message, which is not the kind of message you need, if you wish to be on the safe side with the engines.

Search engine crawlers are getting more and more sensitive, and they often take critical decisions based on what your server tells them through the server's headers. These decisions can make or break your search rankings. In the case of www.business.com, the wrong kind of decision was taken, since Business.com was using a ‘302 Redirect’. Had it used a 301, this whole thing could have been completely avoided.

If you want to prevent such a mishap from happening to your site, simply perform a 'server header check' and view the data that your server will transmit to you. One simple way to verify this is to simply view your server log files. Most good Web hosting companies will supply to its customers its server log files, where you can view such critical header files.

Correctly resetting the proper 301 redirect command
There are two correct ways to properly set up a 301 Permanent Redirect. If you’re using a Linux or Unix server, you can use the features of the .htaccess file to add the redirect to your server’s root command. That is the most complex way of doing it, and I strongly suggest that you either read on the correct way of performing this, or that you hire an experienced network administrator that will do it for you.

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Article written by Serge Thibodeau,
President & CEO,
Rank for $ales
Copyright (c) Serge Thibodeau 2004

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