What is 301 redirect?

A 301 redirect is a server response with the status code 301 Moved Permanently and a Location header naming the new address. Browsers jump to the new URL automatically; search engines take it as a strong signal that the new URL should replace the old one in their index.

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://example.com/guides/orchid-care
Cache-Control: max-age=3600

The status is defined in RFC 9110, section 15.4.2.

Why it matters for SEO

Google’s redirects guide calls permanent server-side redirects the best way to send users and Googlebot to the right page, and treats them as the strongest canonicalization signal — stronger than a canonical tag. Links and other signals pointing at the old URL are consolidated on the new one; Google has said redirects don’t lose PageRank.

Use a 301 when you:

• change a URL slug or folder structure;
• move to HTTPS or to a new domain;
• merge two pages that cover the same topic;
• consolidate www and non-www hosts, or trailing-slash variants.

Server examples

# Apache (.htaccess)
Redirect 301 /old-guide /guides/orchid-care

# Nginx
location = /old-guide { return 301 /guides/orchid-care; }

# PHP
header('Location: https://example.com/guides/orchid-care', true, 301);
exit;

301 versus 308

Both mean “moved permanently”, and Google treats them the same way. The difference is technical: after a 301, clients may change a POST request into a GET, whereas a 308 guarantees the method and body are kept. For ordinary pages a 301 is fine; for form targets and API endpoints, use 308.

Common mistakes

• Redirecting everything to the homepage. Google usually treats irrelevant redirects as soft 404s. Map each old URL to its closest equivalent, or let it return 404 or 410.
• Chains and loops. A → B → C wastes crawls and slows visitors; point A straight at C. See redirect chain.
• Removing redirects too early. For a site move, Google recommends keeping them for at least a year; many sites keep them indefinitely.
• Internal links still pointing at old URLs. Update them so people and bots skip the hop.
• Sending a 302 by accident for a permanent move — see 302 redirect.
• Testing in a browser that cached an old rule. Browsers can cache 301s aggressively, so verify with a fresh profile or a command-line tool.

Trace a redirect

The redirect checker follows every hop — 301, 302, 307, 308 and meta refresh — with status, location and timing, and flags loops, long chains and inconsistent http→https or www handling.

Frequently asked questions