What is 301 Redirect?

Why 301 Redirect Matters

How 301 Redirect Works

301 vs 302 vs 307 vs 308: Which Redirect to Use?

How to Implement 301 Redirect

# Single page redirect
Redirect 301 /old-page /new-page

# Redirect entire directory
RedirectMatch 301 ^/old-directory/(.*)$ /new-directory/$1

# Redirect old domain to new domain
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^olddomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

# Single page redirect
location = /old-page {
    return 301 /new-page;
}

# Redirect with regex
location ~* ^/old-directory/(.*)$ {
    return 301 /new-directory/$1;
}

# Redirect entire old domain
server {
    server_name olddomain.com;
    return 301 https://newdomain.com$request_uri;
}

// Add to functions.php
function custom_redirects() {
    if (is_page('old-page-slug')) {
        wp_redirect('/new-page/', 301);
        exit;
    }
}
add_action('template_redirect', 'custom_redirects');

// Or use the Redirection plugin for a GUI interface

# Page Rule settings:
URL: example.com/old-page*
Setting: Forwarding URL
Status: 301 - Permanent Redirect
Destination: https://example.com/new-page

# For bulk redirects, use Cloudflare's Redirect Rules
# or upload a CSV with source/destination pairs

{
  "redirects": [
    {
      "source": "/old-page",
      "destination": "/new-page",
      "permanent": true
    },
    {
      "source": "/blog/:slug",
      "destination": "/articles/:slug",
      "permanent": true
    }
  ]
}

# Simple redirect
/old-page  /new-page  301

# Wildcard redirect
/old-directory/*  /new-directory/:splat  301

# Domain redirect
https://olddomain.com/*  https://newdomain.com/:splat  301!

301 Redirect Best Practices

• Always test redirects before deploying to production. Use tools like httpstatus.io or curl -I to verify the 301 status code.

• Keep redirect chains to a maximum of 2 hops. A→B→C is acceptable; A→B→C→D→E wastes crawl budget and dilutes link equity.

• Update internal links to point directly to the new URL. Don't rely on redirects for your own site navigation.

• Create a redirect map spreadsheet (old URL → new URL) before any site migration. This documentation is invaluable for troubleshooting.

• Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors after implementing redirects. 404s indicate missed redirects.

• Set up redirects for common URL variations: trailing slashes, case differences, and www/non-www versions.

Common 301 Redirect Mistakes to Avoid

• Using 302 instead of 301 for permanent changes. This is the most common mistake and can prevent proper SEO value transfer.

• Creating redirect loops (A redirects to B, B redirects to A). This breaks the page completely and wastes server resources.

• Redirecting all old pages to the homepage. This provides a poor user experience and wastes the topical relevance of the original page.

• Forgetting to redirect HTTP to HTTPS versions. Both should resolve, with HTTP redirecting to HTTPS.

• Removing redirects too soon. Keep 301s in place for at least 1 year, ideally permanently. They have minimal performance impact.

• Not handling query parameters. Decide whether /page?utm_source=x should redirect to /new-page or /new-page?utm_source=x.

Recommended 301 Redirect Tools

Frequently Asked Questions About 301 Redirect