301 vs 302 redirects: which one to use

Craig AddymanUpdated 4 November 20266 min read

Short answer

Use a 301 when a page has moved for good, so the new URL takes its place in search. Use a 302 when the move is temporary and the original URL should stay in search. If you're not planning to change it back, use a 301.

The difference

Both send visitors to another URL, and visitors won't notice which you used. The difference is what you're telling search engines about which URL to keep.

	301	302
Means	Moved permanently	Found, usually temporary
Signal to Google	The new URL should be canonical	Keep showing the original URL
What shows in search	The new URL	Usually the original URL

A redirect is one signal among several. Google says a temporary redirect can still end up with the target indexed if other signals point to it, and the old URL can keep appearing for a while after a permanent move.

All the redirect types

Type	How Google treats it	Note
`301`	Permanent	The usual choice for moved pages
`308`	Permanent	Keeps the request method, such as POST
`302`	Temporary	The usual choice for short-term moves
`303`	Temporary	Often used after a form submission
`307`	Temporary	Keeps the request method
Meta refresh, 0 seconds	Permanent	Use only if you can't redirect on the server
Meta refresh, delayed	Temporary	Confusing for visitors too
JavaScript	Permanent	A last resort, as Google may not see it if rendering fails

From Google's redirects documentation. It prefers server-side redirects because they're the most reliably understood.

Which one to use

Situation	Use
A page has a new URL	301
Moving from HTTP to HTTPS, or to a new domain	301
Merging two pages into one	301 to the page that stays
Short maintenance or a brief campaign swap	302
An A/B test that sends some visitors to another URL	302
A page removed with no replacement	No redirect. Return 404 or 410

The common mistake is a 302 left in place for months after a permanent change. It's often a platform default or a quick fix that nobody revisited. If the old URL stays in search after a move, check this first.

Don't send removed pages to the homepage either. Google can treat that as a soft 404, and it's no help to the visitor. Redirect to a close replacement or let the page return a 404.

How to check a redirect

1Use curl 30 seconds

This shows the status and destination of every hop:

curl -sIL https://example.com/old-page | grep -iE '^(HTTP|location)'

2Use the browser 1 minute

Open DevTools (F12), go to the Network tab, tick Preserve log and load the old URL. The first request shows its status code and Location header.

While you're there, count the hops. Google follows up to 10, but it advises redirecting straight to the final URL. If you can't, it suggests no more than 3 and always fewer than 5. Point your internal links at the final URL too. If the hops never end, see how to fix a redirect loop.

How to set one up

Keep permanent redirects for at least a year, which is Google's general advice for a site move. Longer is fine.

Apache: Redirect 301 /old-page /new-page
Nginx: location = /old-page { return 301 /new-page; }
Next.js: add it to redirects() in next.config.js. permanent: true sends a 308 and false sends a 307, not 301 and 302. Google treats them the same way.
Shopify: go to Content > Menus, then View URL Redirects. It only redirects URLs that are already broken, so a page that still loads won't redirect.
WordPress: use a redirect plugin or set it at server level. Check which status it sends, as the default may not be what you want.

Checking a page's links?

Find redirects from any page

Open SEOSnip on a page and run the link checker. It checks up to 100 of the page's links, plus its canonical and hreflang targets:

Internal links that redirect, with the final URL to link to instead
Canonical and hreflang targets that redirect
Meta refresh redirects, with their delay
A ticket with that evidence, and Check if fixed to run it again

It shows where a link ends up, not each hop, so use curl to count a chain.

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