301 redirects

I'm about to start a new forum. I'm a bit confused over 301 redirects. I've seen people talking about using 301 redirects.

Does it matter if I set up the subdomain to resolve to the long subdomain or must I use 301 redirect. If you followed what I thought I said, you're doing better than I.


The forum be installed into http://www.domainname.com/keyword1_keyword2 keyword3

I don't want people to have to type all that of course so I want the public subdomain to be http://keyword2.domainname.com which actually sends to:
//www.domainname.com/keyword1_keyword2 keyword3

but still shows keyword2.domainname.com i know some of this will need to be one inside my config files.

My host tells me this: A better way would be to create the subdomain pointed to the folder /keyword1_keyword2_keyword4 instead of keyword2 as it is currently, so instead of a redirect, it would be calling the files directly.​

Is this a bad approach? Or is this what people mean when they say use redirects. I don't understand why you'd want to setup multiple redirects though.

Hope I didn't confuse you, hope I didn't confuse me.

 

Use this link to check the redirects, http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/

It will tell you if it has been done correctly.

 

What your doing is actually useless, 301 redirecting is use to redirect an old web page to a new web page, or directory, or domain name. The concept behind it is to tell search engines "Hey, this page doesn't exist here and more and moved to here". You'll want to use URL rewriting to do what you want, however in my opinion I suggest you either do it on the sub-domain and 301 redirect for type-ins or just use the sub-directory all together.

 

Thanks, your using too much jargon there for me to understand what you are saying. I know what a 301 was intended for. What something is intended for and how it is used are not always the same, which I think you know because you later tell me to use a redirect.

Sorry I'm not following you here. Hope you will clarify. I think there might be some good info there but I don't understand a word of it.

 

Thanks for the link. I used it. it didn't really tell me anything. Guess I'll have to do some reading on redirects.

I still don't know if it matters if I use a redirect or just point the subdomain to the folder makes an difference.

I'm just not following this.

 

This is been lying here for a bit and still not answered. Several times I've seen 301's referenced as important for SEO. Can someone explain how they are to be used for SEO?