Managing 301 Moved Permanently Redirects on AvaHost VPS and Dedicated Servers

The 301 Moved Permanently error is an HTTP status code indicating that a requested resource has been permanently relocated to a new URL. While not an error in the traditional sense, improper 301 redirect setup can disrupt user access or SEO on AvaHost’s high-performance VPS or Dedicated Servers. This guide explains the causes of 301 redirects and provides simple solutions to configure them correctly using AvaHost’s infrastructure, NVMe SSDs, and cPanel tools, ensuring seamless redirection for yourdomain.

Causes for Error 301

• Moving the site to a new domain. One of the most common reasons for using a 301 redirect is to move a website to a new domain. For example, if a company decides to change its brand and therefore its domain name, all old URLs should be redirected to the new ones.
• Changing the URL structure. Sometimes website owners decide to change the URL structure to improve SEO or user experience. For example, changing a URL from example.com/blog/post-name to example.com/articles/post-name requires using 301 redirects to redirect the old URLs to the new ones.
• Correcting errors in URLs. Sometimes URLs contain errors or typos that need to be corrected. In such cases, the old URLs are redirected to the correct URLs using a 301 redirect.
• Consolidation of pages. When merging multiple pages into one more informative page, the old URLs should be redirected to the new URL. This helps avoid duplicate content and improve the user experience. If you have tried these steps and the problem remains relevant, we recommend that you contact us by writing a ticket.

Possible Solutions for Error 301

Using the .htaccess file (Apache)

If your site is running on an Apache server, you can use the .htaccess file to configure 301 redirects. Configuration example:

Redirect 301 /old-page.html http://www.example.com/new-page.html

This code will redirect requests from http://www.example.com/old-page.html to http://www.example.com/new-page.html.

Using Nginx configuration

For Nginx servers, redirects are configured in the configuration file. Configuration example:

server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com;
location /old-page.html {
return 301 http://www.example.com/new-page.html;
}
}

This code will redirect requests from http://example.com/old-page.html to http://www.example.com/new-page.html.

Using CMS, like WordPress

Content management systems like WordPress have plugins that make setting up 301 redirects easy. One such plugin is “Redirection“. After installing and activating the plugin, you can configure redirects through the admin interface.

Conclusion

The 301 Moved Permanently redirect, when properly configured on AvaHost’s VPS or shared hosting, ensures seamless transitions for domain changes, URL updates, or page consolidation while preserving SEO. Using .htaccess, Nginx, or WordPress plugins like Redirection, AvaHost’s LiteSpeed infrastructure and cPanel tools make setup straightforward.