301 redirect
A permanent redirect sending users and search engines from an old URL to a new one, passing along essentially all of its ranking signals.
In depth
What it really means
A 301 tells engines the resource has moved for good. Google has confirmed that 301s pass full PageRank, so the old concern about losing a percentage in the hop is outdated.
What still costs you is doing it badly: chains of several hops, or redirecting everything to the homepage during a migration. The second is the single most common way a site migration destroys its own traffic.
How it works
- The server returns a 301 status with a Location header naming the new URL.
- Browsers follow it and cache it, sometimes aggressively.
- Crawlers follow it and consolidate signals onto the destination.
- The old URL eventually drops out of the index.
Pros & cons
Pros
- Preserves rankings and link equity through a URL change.
- Consolidates duplicates permanently, more strongly than a canonical.
- Keeps existing inbound links and bookmarks working.
Cons
- Browser caching makes 301s hard to undo, so mistakes are sticky.
- Chains slow crawling and waste crawl budget.
- Bulk redirects to the homepage are usually treated as soft 404s.
Common mistakes
- Redirecting every retired URL to the homepage instead of the closest equivalent page.
- Leaving chains in place after successive migrations.
- Using 302 for a permanent move, which delays signal consolidation.
- Redirecting to a page with different content and intent, which Google treats as a soft 404.
Best practices
- Redirect each old URL to its closest content equivalent, one hop only.
- Audit for chains after every migration and flatten them.
- Use 302 only for genuinely temporary moves.
- Keep redirects in place indefinitely. Old links keep arriving for years.
- Update internal links to point at the new URL rather than relying on the redirect.
FAQs
What is a 301 redirect?
A permanent redirect sending users and crawlers from an old URL to a new one, passing along essentially all of the original page’s ranking signals.
Do 301 redirects lose link equity?
No. Google has confirmed 301s pass full PageRank. The old rule of thumb about losing 15 percent is outdated.
301 or 302?
301 for permanent moves, which is nearly always what you want. 302 for genuinely temporary situations, since it delays signal consolidation.
Why did my traffic drop after a migration?
The most common cause is redirecting retired URLs to the homepage rather than to their closest equivalents. Google treats those as soft 404s and drops the rankings.
Keep reading
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