PHP header redirect 301 - what are the implications?
The effect of the 301 would be that the search engines will index /option-a instead of /option-x. Which is probably a good thing since /option-x is not reachable for the search index and thus could have a positive effect on the index. Only if you use this wisely ;-)
After the redirect put exit(); to stop the rest of the script to execute
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); header("Location: /option-a"); exit();
This is better:
<?php//* Permanently redirect pageheader("Location: new_page.php",TRUE,301);?>Just one call including code 301. Also notice the relative path to the file in the same directory (not "/dir/dir/new_page.php", etc.), which all modern browsers seem to support.
I think this is valid since PHP 5.1.2, possibly earlier.
Just a tip: using http_response_code is much easier to remember than writing the full header:
http_response_code(301);header('Location: /option-a'); exit;