A 301 redirect is a way to forward one web link to another. It sends users and search engines to a different link than the original while allowing you to keep your search engine ranking for the page. It’s also a useful way to preserve your old, out-of-date content by simply redirecting old pages or posts to new ones with new information.
This type of redirect is permanent and passes 90-99 per cent of ranking power to the redirected page. 301 redirects can help solve outdated content problems and improve user experience while preserving your search engine rank.
301 redirects can be done when a domain name changes entirely to be sure that users who are accustomed to using the old address will be automatically forwarded to the new domain. Or they can be done on old content within a website. For example, if your website has numerous posts about a certain topic and the older posts aren’t relevant or up-to-date anymore (but still hold strong search engine rank power so you don’t want to remove them), a 301 redirect from the old link will send them to the new link that is current. This way users stay on your site reading the new information they are looking for instead of clicking away to another site to find up-to-date content.
In WordPress, a 301 redirect can be done easily with a plugin that not only makes setting up redirection easy, but also allows for seeing statistics of how often a redirect occurs, and where visitors are coming from when a redirect happens. This makes it very easy to see how effective the redirection of your links is on your website.
Consider using 301 redirects if you have outdated content and want to keep your site fresh and current, which search engines love. You can publish new content, use a 301 redirect, and keep your search ranking power.