There are any number of reasons you might want to redirect users from one page to another. Maybe you upgraded from HTML to PHP or ASP and you need to change the format of the page. Maybe you’ve landed your own domain and need to get people from your old index page to the new one.
Whatever your reasons and whatever the format of your page, there are options. Here, we’ll cover arguably the easiest and most common way to redirect, using Meta tags. How to Do It If you’ve built your website yourself, you’re probably already familiar with meta tags.
A page’s meta tags are used to provide information about the page itself. The user usually never sees the contents of these unless he goes looking in your source code. Instead, it provides information to the browser or can be used to tell search engines more specialized details about your site. To set up a redirect, you want to include this somewhere in your header (between the <head> and </head> tags). If your page already has meta tags, I suggest keeping them all together:
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”refresh”content=”5;URL=http://www.yournewsite.com”>
What this does is it tells the browser to refresh itself in 5 seconds (you can set the number of seconds by changing the number after ‘content=’), but instead of using the current page, use the contents of URL. Of course, this will display your old page for 5 seconds.
Some webmasters take this opportunity to put up a notice that the user is being redirected and should update his bookmarks. You may also want to consider placing a text link in the body of the page as most but not all browsers support redirection.
For example, here is a suggestion for a simple forwarding page:
<html> <head> <title>We’ve Moved!</title> <META HTTP-EQUIV=”refresh” content=”5;URL=http://www.yournewsite.com”> </head> <body> We’ve relocated to <a
href=”http://www.yournewsite.com”>http://www.yournewsite.com</a>;. Please update your bookmarks! You will be taken automatically to our new page in five seconds. Please <a href=”http://www.yournewsite.com”>click here</a> to go now. </body> </html>
This way visitors understand what’s going on and you provide a way for them to get there manually if their browser doesn’t support automatic redirection. It’s important to communicate with your visitors, since some people get nervous about redirects if they aren’t sure where they are being taken. You don’t want your visitors thinking something is going wrong or you’re taking them to an illegitimate site.
If you’d rather users not be stuck on your old page for any amount of time, you can just set the number of seconds to 0. It’s still a good idea, however, to provide a simple notice and text link for those whose browsers don’t forward them automatically.
Related Links:
HTML Tip: Redirecting Your Visitors - by Tom Dahm
SEO advice: discussing 302 redirects - Matt Cutts
The Rundown on 301 and 302 Redirects - SEO Today Article
Are Meta Tags Useful? Hi Everyone! - Pls have a Review on my site - SEO Chat
10 things you should know before submitting your site to Google - How to Check The Meta Tags?
Blog Contributed By: Deborah Parker
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Deborah has built many websites for fun and profit over the years. She is owner and operator of Webbo Web Design Templates, helping small businesses online without the headaches. Let us worry about the coding so you don’t have to!
2 responses so far ↓
Jerry Paul // September 23, 2008 at 3:59 am
It’s really great and useful information. This information will help me a lot.
Thanks
Bruce // January 5, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Thanks for plain english and your straight shooting.
Again you have helped someone else out a great deal.
Thanks Deborah