Redirecting File Names
Why would a developer spend so much time on redirecting file names? If your web pages are appearing in the major search engines, this is crucial. In the event of an upgrade and a change in file name, sites which haven’t redirected their file names will lose traffic. Worse, it could take months for a search engine to recognize that the site no longer exists. A great way to avoid this is by redirecting file names. Redirecting file names keeps your traffic, content, and files intact.
There are major problems associated with keeping a site that doesn’t redirect file names. A site that doesn’t redirect old files is often seen as buggy, since error messages will frequently show on the page whenever a file is “missing.” Traffic that comes from search engine results from an old file or web page will never find its way to your new web page. Since your site will appear error-prone and new traffic doesn’t come in, it’s likely that traffic will decrease. So, how do you redirect files names?
How Can You Redirect File Names?
A 301 redirect is the easiest way to do this. “301” is the error code that tells people that the file has been moved permanently. The 301 redirect is meant for web pages and is best coded by a web developer or web designer. Although redirecting file names isn’t too rough a process, it can be tedious. For those who are more DIY in personality, and enjoy coding, a 301 redirect is easy enough to do.
The 301 redirect is done by including a .htaccess file which search engines are designed to look for. In it, all you need to do in order to safely redirect files is use given commands to redirect the old file locations to the new files. Most of the codes as well as all of the steps necessary that you need to do in order to redirect files can be found on the net.
A 301 redirect is necessary to keep any webpage up-to-date, and safe from lost traffic. Only a 301 redirect is the easiest, the most efficient, and the most transparent method to redirect filenames.
