301 Redirect Tutorial
How to correctly set a 301 Redirecton your domain name Using IIS 6.0
There are many types of redirects that you can apply to a domain name or a specific page within your website. However 301 redirects have been considered the best way to permanently redirect any old domain or URL to its new destination.
In SEO (search Engine Optimisation) there can be good and bad redirects, in our experience we have come to find that a 301 redirect is the best and only way to permanently tell a search engine spider to the new location of a webpage or domain, but there are still many ways to confuse a spider, one example of this is a 302 redirect which if set correctly can confuse a search engine spider e.g. Googlebot.
Page Hijacking – 302 Redirect
302 redirects have been considered a method of hijacking; this means that a webmaster can have his own virtual page rank for terms (key phrases) that belong to another site; if a user knows how to correctly implement this they can steal other websites page rank and key phrase exposure. For more explanation on 302 redirects and the Hijacking issue please visit.
http://clsc.net/research/google-302-page-hijack.htm
Ok enough of the explanations lets get going.
In this tutorial I will guide you step by step on how to correctly implement 301 redirects through IIS 6.0.
Step: 1
If IIS is configured on your local server then skip to Step 2
First of all we must login into the server, if you have to use remote desktop then please connect to your server.
Step: 2
Once we are in the server we need to locate IIS, this could be on the desktop as a shortcut, if not then follow the path below to locate this.
Start / Setting / Control panel / Administrative Tools / Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Step: 3
Once you have located IIS double click to load the program, you will be presented with the following information.
Click the cross that is next to the computer to drop down the list of the configured folders within IIS.
Next you need to drop down the web sites folder; this will display all the website that have been configured in IIS.
Locate the domain that you wish to setup the 301 redirect on. When you have located this domain right click on it and select properties.
On the tabbed menu above click home directory.
Once you are in the home directory pay close attention, you do not want to mess with any other settings this could result in your website not being displayed.
Select a redirection to,
In the redirect website box: Enter the website address that you want the site to direct to. Once you have done this, your website will forward but it still has not been set correctly, you must click a permanent redirection to; by checking this button you are telling the server that you want the redirection to be permanent.
Successful 301 Redirect
Once this has been done click ok then close IIS and test the domain to see if it forwards. If this forwards to the new domain then you have correctly implemented your first 301.
Simple eh? Hope this was helpful.
