1. How a 301 Redirect Can Save Your SEO Efforts<br />The online marketplace is always changing, as are the wants and needs of clients and customers. Since a business website is an important promotional and informational tool for any company, it’s important that it keep up and be updated frequently. Sometimes when a website is updated and redesigned its URL structure needs to be changed along with it in order to remain consistent. It may be possible to maintain the URL structure, but more often than not it needs to be tweaked. When that is the case, it’s extremely important to set up a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect lets both the search engines and website users know that a page has been moved to a new destination or URL. The old page no longer exists and has been moved permanently to a new address. The 301 redirect includes code that forces the browser to arrive at the new location. <br />A 301 redirect is important for SEO purposes because it is a way to try and maintain the power that the website has already established in the search engines. Without the 301 redirect, the page with the new URL structure just seems like a new page to the search engines and as is well known, new pages take time to rank. Established pages that have aged are typically what rank well in the search engines. Without the 301 redirect a website that changes its URL structure is throwing away all of the credibility that it had previously established. <br />Unfortunately, a 301 redirect might not pass on all of a web page’s link power to the “new” page, but it’s the best way to try and maintain as much power as possible. Sometimes it’s just absolutely necessary to change the URL structure, and it’s important to do it in a way that doesn’t lose all of the hard work that was put into the original page. It would be a complete nightmare to lose a search engine results page presence and the best way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is by implementing a 301 redirect.<br />When using a 301 redirect, it’s important to not change all of the content on a web page at the same time. A new URL structure and new content is too drastic of a change for the search engines to understand. Even if a 301 redirect is in place, the search engines might be confused as to whether it is the same page or not. That’s why it’s best to only update the content and make a few tweaks here or there at first when changing the URL structure of a website. <br />A 301 redirect is also important from a website user perspective. Visitors that have bookmarked a page will be left in the dark if they go to the old page. The 301 redirect will simply carry visitors to the new page. The transition should be seamless. <br />The pages with new URL structures won’t immediately show up on the search engine results pages as they once did. It usually takes 4-6 weeks for things to show up properly. <br />About the Author:<br />Brick Marketing is a search engine marketing company in Boston, MA that offers SEO consultant services. For more information please call 877-295-0620 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com. <br />