301 Redirects: The Art of Saying "Nope" to the User
301 redirects are the ultimate way to tell users "nope, not what you're looking for" in a polite way.
They're like a firm handshake, but with more HTTP status codes.
When you 301 a user, it's like saying "I know you were looking for something, but let me show you something better."
And by "better," we mean a page that says "you can't go there."
Here's an example of a 301 in action:
http://example.com/non-existent-pageRedirects to:
http://example.com/you-cant-go-thereVoila!
Want to see more link hijacking techniques?
302: The Art of Saying "I'm a Little Busy, But You Can Try Here" in 3...2...1...
307: The "Temporary" Redirect (But Let's Be Real, It's Not That Temporary)