Robots meta tag and 301 redirects

What is a 301 Redirect?

A 301 redirect is a permanent change of location code. It tells a search engine spider that a page or website has moved.

What does a 301 Redirect look like?

Redirect permanent / http://www.newurl.com/cool/

The 301 redirect code goes inside a .htaccess file either at the root level or in a local level. You can also use a 301 redirect to move just a single page.

Redirect permanent /oldpage.htm http://www.newurl.com/cool/

Meta Refresh Tag Format:

The meta refresh tag is the area between the head tags with the following syntax <META http-equiv=”refresh” content=”11; URL=http://www.yoursite.com/”> (refresh content # = # of second until refresh execution, url= is the url of the page you are refreshing to)

Where to use the Meta Refresh Tag

Places where a meta refresh tag may be necessary:

custom 404 error page
“spamming”
sites where you don’t have access to upload a .htaccess file (and thus can’t use a 301 redirect)
there are a few, but the point is you can usually get around using them with 301 redirects or good site design and navigation structure