What a 301 redirect does for your business
Picture an online shop in Tashkent that reorganises its catalogue. A product that used to open at one address now lives at another. The old links are still in the Instagram bio, in Telegram channel posts, in a blogger's review, in customers' bookmarks and in search results. If they return a 404 error, people leave and the search engine slowly forgets the page.
A 301 redirect tells browsers and search crawlers that the page has moved for good. The visitor lands on the right page without noticing the move, and the search engine passes most of the accumulated signals to the new address. Nobody can promise rankings will stay exactly the same, but without a redirect some loss is almost certain.
When you need a 301 redirect
These situations come up again and again.
The www question is easy to miss. If your site opens both with and without www, search engines see two identical sites and split the value of links between them. Pick one main version and redirect the other. And if a page is deleted with no close replacement, returning a 404 is more honest than sending people to a random section.
- a page address or catalogue structure has changed
- the site is moving to a new domain
- you are switching from HTTP to HTTPS
- two similar pages are merged into one
- a page is removed but a close replacement exists
- you need to unify www and non-www versions
301 versus 302
A 302 is a temporary redirect. Search engines keep treating the old address as the main one and are in no hurry to pass signals to the new one. It suits short situations, such as a page closed for rework or a promo with its own landing page.
A common mistake is a CMS or developer defaulting to 302 when the move is permanent. Months later the new address still has not gained weight. After launch, always check which status code your server actually returns.
Build a redirect map before you move
Before changing the structure, make a table: old address on the left, new address on the right. Collect old URLs from the sitemap, Search Console and analytics so you do not miss pages that people actually visit. Each old URL should point to the closest equivalent: a product page to the same or a similar product, a category to a category.
With hundreds of URLs, write rules as patterns, for example when only a section name changes, and add exceptions as separate lines.
Chains, loops and the send-everything-to-the-homepage trap
A chain is when A redirects to B and B redirects to C. Every extra hop slows loading, especially on mobile internet outside the capital, and weakens signal transfer. The fix is A straight to C. Chains appear on their own: a site moved twice and new rules were stacked on old ones. So review the whole map at every migration, not only the new lines.
A loop is when A redirects to B and B sends you back to A. The page simply fails to open and the browser shows an error.
The third trap is pointing every old page at the homepage. It looks simple, but visitors do not find what they wanted, and a search engine may treat it as a soft 404 and ignore the signals.
How to set up and check redirects
Redirects are set in the server configuration, in the CMS panel, with a plugin or through the framework. A plugin is enough for a handful of URLs. For a large map, server rules are faster and easier to keep in one place. After launch, work through this checklist.
- run the old URLs through a crawler and look for the 301 code, final address and number of hops
- open key pages by hand, including on a phone
- check the response code in the Network tab of browser developer tools
- watch Search Console for indexing errors and 404s
- update menus, the sitemap and internal links so they point to new URLs directly
- check links in Instagram, your Telegram bot and ads
- make sure payment through Click or Payme and the return to your site still work
How long to keep redirects in place
Do not remove redirects a couple of weeks after launch. While external links point to an old address or people arrive from bookmarks, it should keep forwarding. In practice, keep them for a long time, ideally permanently.
If you are planning a structure change, a new domain or a redesign, markdev can prepare the redirect map and audit the site before and after launch as part of SEO optimisation in Uzbekistan. Describe your task and we will discuss where to start.
FAQ
Does a 301 redirect hurt search rankings?
A correctly configured 301 passes most signals to the new address, so serious losses are usually avoided. Drops come from chains, mass redirects to the homepage and forgotten pages.
What is the difference between 301 and 302?
A 301 signals a permanent move and the index is updated. A 302 is temporary and the old address stays indexed. Use 301 for permanent changes.
Can I redirect all old pages to the homepage?
It is better not to. Visitors do not find what they came for, and search engines may treat it as a 404. Redirect each page to its closest equivalent.
How do I check that a redirect works?
Crawl your list of old URLs, open key pages manually and read the response code in browser developer tools. Then monitor Search Console.
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