What is a 301 redirect?

301 is an HTTP status code that signals that a page and its content have been moved to a new location.

In most cases, 301 redirects are used to direct users and search engines to the new location of old content, while also preserving any PageRank from the original page.

How do 301 redirects work?

In practice, a 301 redirect works so that users who, for example, click on a link to a redirected page are automatically sent to the new version of that old (redirected) page. In many cases, this is hardly noticeable from a user’s perspective.

Example of a 301 redirect

If you want to try clicking on a link that has been redirected with a 301, you can test this example from Google itself: https://www.google.se/

Even though you click on the link ending with .se, you will notice that you are quickly redirected to .com. (Keep an eye on the address bar in your browser.)

The visitor is automatically redirected from https://www.google.se/ to https://www.google.com/, regardless of whether they typed the URL themselves or clicked on a link.

301 redirects and SEO

From an SEO perspective, there are mainly two advantages to using 301s instead of, for example, 302s when content has been permanently moved to a new URL. The first is user-friendliness, and the second is link equity.

As a rule, PageRank is largely “transferred” with 301 redirects, provided that the old page is redirected to a relevant equivalent.

However, Google announced long ago that even 302 redirects can pass PageRank, especially if they remain in place for a longer period. Despite this, 301s are still preferred — when a move is permanent, there is really no reason to take chances.

When should you use 301 redirects?

Here are some common situations where 301s should be used:

• Website migration
• Fixing broken links
• Moving from HTTP to HTTPS protocol
• Consolidating pages or articles
• Adjusting or changing the site’s URL structure

It should also be emphasized here that relevance must always be considered. The purpose of this type of redirect is to signal that specific content has been given a new location or an updated equivalent. For example, a category page selling footballs is not relevant to redirect to a page about hockey pucks.

When should you not use redirects?

There are situations where redirects are not the best option. For instance, this could involve content being removed without a new equivalent being published, or products that will never come back. In such cases, it may actually be more appropriate to delete the pages in question and let them return a 404 instead, or to keep the product page live with a 200 status code and link to another product.