Why, and An Easy Way, To Set Up a 301 Redirect on Your Blog

Why and How To Set Up a 301 Redirect on Your Blog

Unless you are a SEO nut, you probably do not know what a 301 Redirect is. But there is a really good reason why you need to use one on your blog.

To understand why you need one, you have to understand the issue below:

Google sees http://ageofmarketing.com as different to http://www.ageofmarketing.com.

That’s right. Whether you like it or not, they are two different sites in the eyes of Google.

Why this should worry you is because all that link building you been doing (commenting, guest posting etc.), unless you have been consciously using either only a ‘www’ domain name or a ‘non-www’ domain name, you have been splitting the ‘link juice’ between what Google sees as two different sites. That is, you have been building back links to two different sites.

This is where a 301 Redirect comes into play. It is a permanent redirect to tell Google that they are the one site.

How to Set Up a 301 Redirect in WordPress in 10 Minutes

Here is how to set one up in WordPress:

Step 1. Install Simple 301 Redirects.

Log into WordPress admin >> left click Add New under the Plugins tab on the left menu.

In the next screen, search for, install and activate Simple 301 Redirects. You can download another provider if you like; this is the one I happen to use.

Step 2. Define the rule

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, click on 301 Redirects link under the Settings tab on the left menu.

In the next screen, type in the ‘non-www’ domain name for your blog (e.g. http://ageofmarketing.com) in the left column. In the right column enter the ‘www’ domain name for your blog (e.g. http://www.ageofmarketing.com). Left click Save Changes.

To check if the redirect was set up properly, visit http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/.

In the search function, type in the ‘non-www’ version of your domain name and left click Check Redirects.

It should return a response showing a 301 redirect (see image below).

That is it. You are done.  Google will now see the two domains as one.

If you want to learn how to do it on other blogging platforms, see Stepforth’s article on 301 Redirects.

If you want to learn about other uses of 301 Redirects, see Link Reclamation Best Practices – The Complete Guide (SEJ article).