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Have you ever wondered what happens to all those valuable backlinks and search rankings when you delete a page or change your domain name? The answer lies in properly implemented 301 redirects – the unsung heroes of technical SEO.

301 redirects function as your website's forwarding address, telling both browsers and search engines that content has permanently moved to a new location. More importantly, they transfer accumulated ranking signals like backlinks, history, and authority to the new URL. Without them, you risk throwing away years of hard-earned SEO equity.

In this episode, I break down four critical scenarios where 301 redirects are absolutely essential: when removing outdated pages, when restructuring your website's URL hierarchy, when standardizing your www/non-www domain configuration, and during complete domain migrations. The last scenario is particularly crucial – failing to implement proper redirects during a domain change has caused countless websites to vanish from search results overnight.

I also tackle the common question of how long redirects should remain active. While Google officially states that signals transfer fully after about a year, I recommend keeping them permanently. Even decades-old links continue to be crawled and pass value through properly maintained redirects. As I discovered at Broadband.Co.uk, links from as far back as 1996 were still being followed by Google's crawlers 25+ years later!

Want to learn more about preserving your website's SEO value during changes? Subscribe to "SEO is Not That Hard" for practical advice that helps you maintain and grow your search visibility. And check out Keywords People Use to discover exactly what your audience is searching for online – try it free today at keywordspeopleuse.com.

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"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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