301 .htaccess redirect is the safest search engine redirect there is! This is also the friendliest method for web page redirection. Most web hosting company and web master out there will definitely recommend this method of web page redirection. The code “301″ is interpreted as “moved permanently”.

For websites hosted in either dedicated server or a shared web hosting server, you use 301 redirects in redirecting a single html page or an entire website.

Here’s and example of redirecting a single page/html page:

Redirect 301 /oldpage.html http://www.example.com/newpage.html

For a whole website, you can use 301 redirect in this manner:

Redirect 301 / http://www.example.com/

Personally on my shared web hosted site, I only use the HTML redirect. But there are other use of the 301 redirect on a web sites.

Here are other use of it:

1. Changed file extension
2. Redirect web site with ‘www’ to not having one.
3. vice versa of the previous example.
4. Redirect example.com/index.php to example.com/

So next time you moved your web site content from one web hosting server provider to another or moving your site to a new domain name, you can definitely use the 301 redirect.

This time, it’s about Shared Web Hosting.

What is Shared Webhosting?

We can define this in a super ‘made sense’ kind of way. Let’s first define what a web hosting is. Web hosting is a service you get (or buy) from an internet service provider or a web hosting company, where in they will give you a server for you to host your website/blog/forum or what-have-you.

The web hosting package usually includes many other services. Basic package of course is the amount of hard disk space your package has, and the amount of monthly traffic/bandwith it comes bundled with.

The above definition both describes the dedicated web hosting and a shared  hosting. The only difference is that in a shared web hosting, you share the server with other webmasters or their websites.

Another difference is that you will be the main system administrator of your server while in a shared web host, there is one common admin that manages all the accounts (which is an advantage if you’re not familiar with the technicalities)

In shared hosting, the provider is generally responsible for managing servers, installing server software, security updates, technical support, and other aspects of the service. Most servers are based on the Linux operating system and LAMP (software bundle), which is driven by the low cost of open source software.

On a future post, we’ll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a shared webhosting service.

Till next time.