Each time you visit a website, there is a request sent from your browser to a website’s server. The web server receives this request, processes it, and sends along an HTTP header and HTTP status code. This HTTP status code normally will not be seen by someone visiting the website unless there is an error. If a server responds with an HTTP status code message, that is its way of communicating that there is some sort of an error. Within each type of HTTP status code, there is a category type that can be identified by a number that relates to the reason as to why the error occurred.
In the case of a 301 redirect, this type of HTTP status code occurs when there was supposed to be a redirection of a request to a new URL link. This HTTP status code falls under the 3xx category of response codes, all of which are redirection-related requests.
In the case of the 301 redirect, the problem occurs when there is an issue communicating a redirection request from an old to a new permanent URL link on a website. This type of error can occur when updates or changes are made to a website, but the server response redirecting the user to the new URL link has failed.
Why Do 301 Moved Permanently Occur?
Since the 3xx category of HTTP status codes are considered redirection messages, this indicates that additional action is necessary to access the website. Unlike 5xx HTTP status codes that relate to communication issues between two servers, the 301 moved permanently error occurs from an issue from the inbound website’s URL linking, and not the client trying to access it. While most browsers will automatically detect a 301 moved permanently response code and process a redirection request immediately, if the URL is not linked properly, a 301 error message will appear. Some other reasons 301 errors occur include:
How Can 301 Errors Damage a Website’s Reputation?
301 errors can impact a brand’s reputation in two ways — through search engine rankings and user experience. If your website has redirect request errors, search engines will not properly index it, and therefore decrease search rankings from an inability to detect page content. 301 errors also cause frustration for visitors as they are unable to find important content on specific pages of a website.
How do you fix a 301 error message?
1. Check Your Htaccess Files for Errors in URL Linking
Most websites run on one of these two types of popular server software — Apache. Within these server applications you will then look into the htaccess file within the root directory of your website files, as this will help determine where any redirection instructions are located.
What is an Htacess File?
Htacess stands for hypertext access, and is a type of server configuration file. Each file contains configuration directives towards a server within a directory. In simpler terms, each htaccess file basically gives instructions to a server, which could include passcode requirements for certain areas of a directory, as well as configuration to automatic redirects on certain areas of a website. If you need to update an htaccess file, it is important to ensure the file is properly titled ‘.htaccess’ only.
In order to locate the htaccess file in Apache, you can click on the username of your account associated with your server hosting. Once you have located the htaccess file within your directory, you can open it in a text editor and locate the lines Rewrite directives, which will allow you to modify these to ensure there are matching URL links for any redirects within your website.
There are two types of Rewrite directives that can be modified:
RewriteCond
RewriteRule
You will want to go through both of these within the htaccess file to make sure there aren’t any redirects to URLs that no longer exist. If there is, you can temporarily remove them and restart your website server to see if that resolves the issue.
If your server runs on nginx, your rewrite directives are identified as return or rewrite directives as opposed to RewriteCond and RewriteRule.
2. Use a Third Party Tool to Check for Any 301 Redirects
The free tools below are a great way to run a quick website audit and give some insights on any 301 moved permanently errors that might need to be modified.
