ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS column: Part 015: How to set up a search engine-compliant redirect for your website

4.9
(481)

When you buy a new domain on the Internet, your provider forwards it to your main domain by default. Because Google penalises the creation of twins on the Internet, it is important to integrate a search engine-compliant redirect. Sanjay Sauldie, specialist for internet marketing in B2B, shows you the right redirection.

Redirects play a very important role on the Internet. Normally, you will not notice any redirects in practice. After all, that is their purpose. Let's take a look at different types of redirects:

A 301 redirect: http://www.eimia.de redirects correctly to the subfolder of http://www.iroi.de in terms of search engine technology.

You will find a javascript redirect if you see the following information on some websites: "You are being redirected to page xy, or click here ...". This is the worst form of redirection because search engines don't like this and may not index anything.

How to test redirects

The only redirect that is truly search engine compliant is the 301 redirect. To test how good your own redirects are, simply test your redirect. So, find a domain x that you own that points to another domain y. You can test domain x here: http://web-sniffer.net

If you do not yet have a proper redirect (i.e. two domains show the same content when called!), then you should definitely use a redirect using this method.

What 301 forwarding means

The 301 status code signals to the search engine that the address is outdated and that it should only use the new address. Google also takes over the pagerank of the old page and transfers it to the new website. This is particularly interesting if, for example, you are moving your website to a new provider or a new domain.

Compare this 301 forwarding with a forwarding request to the post office to forward all incoming letters to your new address when you move house. All you have to do is let them know when the new visitors will be forwarded to where. If you don't do this properly, don't be surprised if you lose visitors!

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 4.9 / 5. Vote count: 481

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Share it on your social channels:

About the author:

Photo of author
Sanjay Sauldie, born in India, grew up in Germany, studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Cologne, did his Master of Sciences (M.Sc.) at the University of Salford (Manchester, UK) on digital disruption and digital transformation (2017) and was trained at EMERITUS (Singapore) in the MIT method of design thinking (2018). He is Director of the European Internet Marketing Institute EIMIA. Awarded the Internet Oscar "Golden Web Award" by the International World Association of Webmasters in Los Angeles/USA and twice the "Innovation Award of the Initiative Mittelstand", he is one of the most sought-after European experts on the topics of digitalisation in companies and society. In his lectures and seminars, he ignites a firework of impulses from practice for practice. He manages to make the complex world of digitalisation understandable for everyone in simple terms. Sanjay Sauldie captivates his audience with his vivid language and encourages them to put his valuable tips into practice immediately - a real asset to any event!

Leave a comment

en_GBEN