In the earlier days of the web, programmers used a line of coding called a META REFRESH to re-route visitors to another page if a page was updated or changed on a web site. For those unfamiliar, here is what the code looks like:

< meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="4;url=http://www.webtrafficteam.com" >

In this example, content = 4, relates to the length of time (in seconds) the page will display until forwarding to the URL listed. All one would need to do is have this snippet of web coding placed in the HEAD section of the page, and it would automatically redirect you to the URL, in this case www.webtrafficteam.com If you are going to use this piece of code, you will need to remove the extra spaces at the beginning and end of the code; they were added for formatting the article.

The search engines soon caught on that this coding was being used to manipulate the search engines by those who would obtain a high rank on a page and then re-route that traffic to another site which wouldn’t normally rank as well.

So how do you avoid being looked at as an unscrupulous web marketer? Enter the 301 Redirect. A 301 redirect is simply a technical means of re-routing a visitor to a new web page without the search engines thinking that you are doing something to manipulate search results. As a side note, it is also a great way to hide an affiliate link.

The short of it is that you can add this code to a web page and now redirect your page without fear of hurting your search engine rankings - for now that is. Using the code below, simply change the URL to your destination URL and upload the page to your server. NOTE: If you have never done this before, please use a test page or folder so you don’t take your site down unexpectedly.

Here are the 301 redirect code samples:

Below are samples of coding used to perform a 301 redirect. If you are running on a Microsoft platform, you should use the ASP (VB Script) code and if you are running any flavor of Unix (i.e. Linux), you should use the PHP code.

PHP – Unix/Linux platform

< ?php // Permanent redirection header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); header("Location: http://www.destinationurl.com"); exit(); ? >

ASP (VB Script) – Microsoft Windows platform

< %@ Language=VBScript %> <% response.status="301 moved permanently" Response.AddHeader "Location", " http://www.destinationurl.com" % >

I hope this helps you implement effective redirects that don't get you in trouble with the search engines.

Anthony Kirlew is an Internet Marketing Specialist and a life long entrepreneur. Among his diverse business interests, he is the founder of The Web Traffic Team located at http://www.webtrafficteam.com, an Internet Marketing firm committed to helping businesses increase their revenues, both online and offline, through effective Internet Marketing strategies.