Most of those starting out in SEO may not fully understand or be aware of a website redirect. An experienced SEO or web developer may spit out the terms, “301″, “302″ or “404″ redirect. I’m not exactly sure where the numbers came from but these three techniques have different functions. First let me explain the redirects-how they work-and why they are so darn important in SEO.

The 301 Redirect

This is the most common and widely used. When content is moved to a different page or removed altogether, we need to preserve rankings. You may have a pages such as a press release or services that rank high for “blue widgets” in Google. Later, you may do some archive cleanup, a site redesign, or totally re-code the site. The 301 would be put in place to send it “permanently” to a new page. For instance, if your old page is www.yoursite.com/blue-widgets/index.asp and after your change, you want it to go to www.yoursite.com/blue-widgets.html. A 301 tells the engines, “hey, we still have the content, it’s here now.” It’s almost like a change of address through the post office.

So how do you do a 301 redirect?

It does take a bit of programming and IT knowledge because there is code needed to be added and IT experience through IIS for Windows servers or .htaccess through an Apache server. Lisa Barone, a well-known SEO over at Bruce Clay created a very good 301 tutorial for the beginner.

The 302 Redirect

This is a more “temporary” change because for many reasons you may want to go back to the original page. For example, say I am an e-commerce site and offer sales for the Christmas season. I may do a 302 from www.mysite.com/blue-widgets.asp to www.mysite.com/christmas-specials.asp. I want to preserve the ranking for the blue-widgets.asp page after the Christmas season and change it back to its original location. Again, this technique, is in-depth and some technical background is required. One of the authorities on SEO, Matt Cutts has a great article on the explanation and how to install this technique. You can see the 302 redirect explation and learn why and when to use this type of SEO tactic.

The 404 Redirect

This redirect is for pages that do not exist altogether and tell the search engines, “It isn’t here but we have other content that may be similar”. It also tells the user, “that page doesn’t exist but stay on our site and we may have something else you may be interested in”. In recent years, many sites have created custom 404 pages that can have the same look and feel as the rest of the site. If not, there is a generic Microsoft 404 page that comes up in IE.

The best way to use the 404 and keep your visitors on your site is to link to your sitemap or search area. From here, there is a good chance they can find what they are looking for or something similar. And the best message to put is something like “Sorry, this page must have been removed or placed in a different location, Click here(sitemap) to find what you are looking for”. What also works well is placing a call-to-action as well. Include a phone number or email address. This is a good way to show you’re interested in helping them find what they want and in-turn you close a sale!