What are 301 Redirects?

A 301 redirect sends users and search engines to a different URL than the one they originally requested. For example, with a 301 redirect, we could direct a person trying to access www.example.com/cats to www.example.com/pets.

You can think of 301 redirects as being like a mail forwarder. If you move home addresses, you have the post office forward any mail to your old address to your new. It's as simple as that.

301 redirects are a useful SEO tool as they allow a webmaster to communicate a URL change to users and search engines. 301 redirects pass 90-99% of the original page’s value (ranking power) to the new page, which is great for SEO. And, they ensure that a user doesn’t hit a page not found error (also known as a 404 error), which is great for user experience.

When to Use 301 Redirects

Here are some common situations where you might want to use 301 redirects.

Website Redesign

If you’re launching a new website, then the URLs will most likely change. The search engines have indexed the content on your existing website and will expect to find that content at the corresponding URLs. If you launch the new website without mapping old URLs to their corresponding new URLs, then the search engines will become lost in the shuffle.

Use 301 redirects to map old URLs to new URLs, transferring ranking power from the old URLs to the new ones. And when we say URL mapping, here's a quick example of what I am talking about.

Content Updates

Removing a page from your website? Merging content from two pages to one? Want to change an existing URL to something new? Whenever you make these changes, let search engines and users know with a 301 redirect from the old URL(s) to the new URL.

Ongoing SEO Maintenance

Even if you haven’t recently updated your website, 404 (page not found) errors can still show up unexpectedly. A link might break, a page might be deleted during a content update, or a plugin might cause a URL change behind the scenes. Over time, these small changes can add up and impact both your user experience and SEO performance.

That’s where regular SEO maintenance comes in.

To monitor for these issues, check Google Search Console. Head to Pages > Not Indexed > Page with redirect or 404 (Not Found) to see a list of URLs on your site that are returning errors. These reports help you catch broken links and other crawl issues before they become a bigger problem.

Investing in 301 redirect management on a quarterly or annual basis is a smart way to stay on top of your site’s health. This technical SEO tune-up ensures that any broken URLs are redirected to relevant live pages—preserving your site’s authority, supporting your rankings, and delivering a seamless experience for your visitors.

What’s the Difference Between 301 and 302 Redirects?

A 301 redirect informs users and search engines that the content of a page has been permanently relocated to a new location. A 302 redirect tells users and search engines that this change is temporary. More often, you will use a 301 redirect. However, a 302 redirect would be helpful if a product you sell is temporarily out of stock or discontinued. In this example, you would create a 302 redirect to point the discontinued product page to a similar product. Then, when the original product is back in stock, remove the 302 redirect.

How Do I Add 301 Redirects to My Website?

Suggested resources, organized by content management system, are listed below.