The Imperative of 301 Redirects

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I feel like I've been living under a rock because I just discovered the Google Webmaster Help channel on YouTube. In a few minutes I perused through a few videos and one jumped out to me because it deals with an issue I am constantly facing with clients and helping to guide them through. That issue is redirecting content, specifically 301 redirects. Just this last week I was working with an enterprise client who is going through some significant organizational shifts and migrating content as well as infrastructure.  Part of the challenge is dealing with changing URL's and thus the need to manage 301 "permanent" redirects.  One thought on the table had been to just let old URL's go dark, i.e. not manage redirects any longer.  In my experience, that would be a disaster and while maintaining redirect management may require significant effort, the value of it is also significant. All this to say, I watched a video on the Webmaster Help channel that helps to clarify for all the skeptics out there that (a) redirects are important, and (b) there are some guidelines to follow when implementing them.  Here's the video to watch, or crawl out from under the rock we've been sharing and go over to the Webmaster Help channel to watch this and lots of other great videos.   And another good, related video.