What Is a 301 Redirect and Why Does My Business Website Need One?

Quick answer

A 301 redirect permanently forwards an old web address to a new one, so anyone — or any search engine — arriving at the old link lands on the right page instead of an error. You need them when addresses change: a redesign, a new domain, or a renamed page. The key rule is to forward each old page to its closest match, not everything to the homepage.

In plain terms

It's a change-of-address notice for one web page. The "301" part just means permanent, as opposed to a temporary forward. Set one up and the old link keeps working forever, even though the page behind it moved.

When your business needs them

A redesign where page addresses changed.
A new domain name, with the old one forwarding across.
Making both www and non-www versions land in the same place.
Forwarding the insecure http version to https.
Renaming or merging a service page.
A shorter address you use on print, radio, or a vehicle wrap.

Why they matter more than they sound

Old links exist in places you can't edit: a supplier's site, a directory listing, an old email, a customer's bookmark, a Facebook post from 2019. Without redirects, every one of those becomes a dead end. Redirects also let search engines connect the old page's history to the new one, which is why they're central to any move. See what happens to SEO when I redesign.

The mistake almost everyone makes

Pointing every old address at the homepage. It's quick, and it's bad. Someone looking for your deck building page gets dumped on a generic homepage and leaves, and search engines treat a mass redirect to the homepage as effectively deleting those pages. Map each old page to the closest equivalent. If no equivalent genuinely exists, letting it show a proper not-found page is more honest than a misleading forward.

How they get set up

It depends on your platform: some have a redirects screen where you paste old and new addresses, others handle it at the hosting level or in a config file. Either way, it's normally a small job for whoever manages your site — and worth asking about before a move rather than after. See can I move my website to another provider.

Check they worked

Type your old addresses into a browser and confirm each one lands on the right page. Watch for chains, where one redirect leads to another and then another. And don't redirect a page to itself — that produces a loop and an error. Add this to your launch checklist: what to test before launching.

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