This has been an issue raised time and again by many of our clients. We have an old URL that needs to be redirected, or we don’t know how to keep track of all our 404 pages.  For our reference, below is a list of the most common server response codes.

200-OK Found

400-Bad request

401-Unauthorized request

403-Forbidden

404-Not Found

500-Internal Error

502-Service Temporarily Overloaded

301-Permanently Moved

302-Temporarily moved

For the purposes of this post, we are focusing on the 301 and 404 codes. Often times how to deal with server responses can be overlooked even by us.  If you search for Oh No SEO, you’ll find one of our other domains appearing within the index. This creates problems for rankings as well as potential duplicate content penalties by the engines. There are two solutions to this problem: setup a server side 301 redirect if you are not using the domain, or allow it to show a 404 error. The second scenario will eventually cause the engines to deindex that domain. Any other server response will cause a delay in removing the domain from the index.

Google also offers a manaul removal of the domain from their index if you have access to webmaster tools. If you have a domain you’re unsure how to deal with, we’re happy to offer a free consult. Happy redirecting everyone.