Can you remember typing in a URL into a web browser, clicking ‘Enter’ and seeing that bring you to a page’s URL completely different from the one you typed in? Every curious how that happened? The answer is through the use of a web/server based redirect action.
In the web world, there are 2 types of redirects: temporary and permanent. Typically, a temporary (302) redirect is not something most webmasters will need to use. It tells web crawlers that the redirect is only there for a limited time and data from the initial URL should not be passed on to the new URL, leaving the new URL high and dry for search engine rankings. It would be like starting all over again.
On the other hand we have the permanent (301) redirect. This tells web crawlers that the initial page will no longer be used, and all gathered data from that page will be applied to the new URL which is being redirected to. This way, the new URL won’t have to start from scratch to gather search rankings. Keep in mind, however, that if the content on the new URL is significantly different from the previous URL that the new URL will be re-indexed and your search rankings could change.
In any regard, redirects are a great tool to have especially when changing/applying SEO to your file names. For example, if the initial URL was something like www.yourdomain.com/page1.html and you decided to change that to something like www.yourdomain.com/seo-redirects.html, all you’d have to do is place a 301 redirect on /page1.html and every time that page is called, visitors/web spiders will end up on /seo-redirects.html.
There are a few different ways to implement a redirect on your site, and they can vary depending on the language used (HTML, PHP, ASP, etc.). The most effective way to implement a redirect, however, is to modify the .htaccess in your root folder to tell web crawlers about the redirect data.
For instructions on how to do this, check out this page.
Also keep in mind that any incorrect action in modifying your .htaccess file can severely inhibit the functionality of your site, so if you’re not trained in such modifications, definitely hire a professional.