Digital marketing term
301 Redirect
An HTTP response that tells browsers and crawlers a URL has moved for good, and the new address should replace it. Use it for migrations, HTTPS, and retired pages that have a real equivalent.
Detailed explanation
A permanent move is how you ask search to consolidate signals on the destination. Domain changes, HTTP to HTTPS, merged pages, and mapping a dead URL to a true equivalent belong here—not a two-week promo path.
The usual mistakes are 301ing a temporary detour or leaving a real migration on a 302. Chains (A→B→C) waste crawl budget; dumping everything on the homepage reads like a soft 404. Do it server-side; a JavaScript bounce is not the same signal.
In Search Console, the old URL should drop and the new one should pick up the queries. If you will not restore the original address, choose 301. Map to the closest equivalent page, not a generic homepage.
Frequently asked questions
- When is a 301 the wrong choice?
- If the original URL will come back—tests, maintenance, a short promo—use a 302 or 307 instead.
- Does a 301 to the homepage keep rankings?
- Usually not. Irrelevant homepage dumps are treated like soft 404s. Map to the closest equivalent URL.
Related terms
Internal links for the topic cluster — read these concepts together.
- RedirectAn HTTP response that sends browsers and crawlers from one URL to another; permanent (301) and temporary (302/307) codes do different jobs. Broken pages, moved content, and short campaign paths all use this mechanism.
- 302 RedirectA temporary HTTP response that sends users to another URL while signaling the original address should return. Use it for maintenance, tests, geo detours, or short campaign paths.
- Canonical URLA Canonical URL is an HTML tag that tells search engines which address should be treated as the "primary" version among multiple pages with identical or very similar content.
- URLThe full address a browser opens: scheme, host, and path in one string. People share it, crawlers fetch it, and analytics treat it as a page — canonical choice should pin signals to one address.
- SEOSEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the set of technical and content practices that help a website rank more visibly in organic search results.
- Dead LinkA URL that no longer returns the resource, often as a 404 or a timeout. They collect in menus, emails, and body copy and quietly tax both crawl and trust.