301 vs 302 Redirects: When to Use Each

Think about what happens when you move house. If the move is permanent, you fill out a change-of-address form so the postal service forwards your mail to the new place forever, and over time everyone updates their records to the new address. But if you're just staying somewhere for a couple of weeks, you'd ask for temporary forwarding; you certainly wouldn't want the world to permanently rewrite your address for a short trip. Web redirects work in almost exactly this way, and the two main types, the 301 and the 302, are the digital equivalents of "permanent move" and "temporary move."

Choosing the wrong one is a surprisingly common and quietly costly mistake. Use a temporary redirect when you meant permanent, and search engines may keep clinging to the old address, refusing to pass on the reputation you spent years building. Use a permanent redirect when you meant temporary, and you might lock in a change you wanted to reverse. In this guide we'll demystify these numbers, explain when each is right, and show how to avoid the slip-ups that leak rankings.

What a redirect actually does

A redirect is an automatic instruction that sends someone from one web address to another. When a visitor or a search engine crawler requests a page that has a redirect in place, the server quietly responds, "That page isn't here; go to this other address instead," and the browser follows along, usually so fast the visitor never notices. The original link still works from the user's point of view; they just end up where you've sent them.

Redirects are everywhere and entirely normal. You set one up when you change a page's address, retire an old page in favour of a newer one, merge two pages, or move your whole site. The crucial detail is the little status code that travels with the redirect, the 301 or 302, because that number tells search engines how to interpret the move. Understanding it is part of the technical SEO basics every site owner benefits from knowing.

The number is a message to search engines

To a human visitor, a 301 and a 302 feel identical; both just take you to the new page. The difference is entirely in the message sent to search engines. A 301 says, "This change is permanent, please update your records and move the reputation to the new address." A 302 says, "This is only temporary, keep the original address in your records because it'll be back." That single distinction shapes how your rankings behave.

The 301: a permanent move

A 301 redirect is the one you'll reach for most often. It signals that a page has permanently moved to a new address and that the new address should now be treated as the real one. Over time, search engines transfer the indexing and the accumulated reputation, the value built from links and history, to the destination. They drop the old address from their records and show the new one in search results instead.

You want a 301 whenever the change is meant to last. Classic cases include changing a page's URL to something cleaner, consolidating two similar pages into one stronger page, retiring an old product page and sending visitors to a replacement, or moving your entire site to a new domain. In all of these, you're telling search engines, "This is the new home; please pass along everything the old page earned." This makes the 301 the workhorse of any thoughtful site change and a central part of repairing broken links rather than leaving dead ends behind.

The 302: a temporary detour

A 302 redirect signals a temporary move. It tells search engines, "For now, send people to this other address, but don't update your records, because the original page is coming back." Because the move is framed as temporary, search engines generally keep the original address indexed and don't rush to transfer reputation to the destination.

Genuine uses for a 302 are narrower than people assume. You might use one while a page is briefly under maintenance and you're sending visitors to a stand-in. You might use one for a short-term promotional page that will revert afterwards, or during a test where you're temporarily routing some visitors elsewhere. The defining question is simple: do you intend to bring the original address back? If yes, a 302 fits. If no, you almost certainly want a 301.

The mistake that quietly costs rankings

By far the most common redirect error is using a 302 when you meant a 301. It's an easy trap, because many systems and plugins default to a temporary redirect unless you deliberately choose otherwise, and because both types look identical to a visitor. Everything appears to work, so no one notices. But behind the scenes, a 302 on a permanent move can mean the search engine keeps the old address in its index and hesitates to move the hard-won reputation to the new page.

The practical result is sluggish, disappointing performance after a change that should have been clean. A page you moved doesn't gain the strength it should, and the old URL lingers oddly in results. Because nothing visibly breaks, this can go undetected for months. The fix is to check the actual status code your redirects return, not just to assume, especially after any major change. It's exactly the kind of issue a thorough SEO audit is built to surface.

Redirect chains and loops

Two related problems deserve a mention because they quietly erode performance. The first is the redirect chain: address A redirects to B, which redirects to C, which finally redirects to D. Each hop adds a little delay and a little risk that reputation isn't passed along cleanly. A long chain slows pages down and can dilute the benefit of the redirect. The cure is to point the original address straight at the final destination wherever possible.

The second is the redirect loop, where A sends you to B and B sends you right back to A, trapping visitors and crawlers in an endless circle until the browser gives up. Loops break pages entirely and need fixing immediately. Both chains and loops tend to creep in over years of small changes, which is why periodic checks matter, and why redirects are tightly linked to the wider job of fixing broken links across a site.

Redirects, canonicals, and the rest of the toolkit

Redirects are one of several tools for managing how search engines understand your pages, and it helps to know where they sit. A redirect physically moves people to a new address. A canonical tag, by contrast, leaves both addresses reachable but names a preferred version for ranking. They solve overlapping problems in different ways, so it's worth understanding both; the companion guide on canonical tags explains exactly when each is the better choice.

You'll also want your redirects to agree with your other signals. After moving pages, update your internal links so they point straight to the new addresses rather than bouncing through redirects, and refresh your XML sitemap to list the new URLs. Strong, current internal linking means visitors and crawlers reach the right page directly, getting the full benefit of your move.

Redirects during a site move

Nowhere are redirects more important than when you move an entire website to a new domain or restructure it significantly. Done well, a comprehensive set of 301 redirects maps every old address to its new equivalent, carrying your reputation across intact so visitors and rankings survive the transition. Done poorly, with missing or temporary redirects, a move can wipe out years of accumulated value almost overnight.

This is why redirect planning is the backbone of any careful website migration. Every meaningful old URL should have a permanent redirect to its closest new match, the chains should be kept short, and the whole map should be tested before and after the switch. If that sounds daunting, it often is, and it's a sensible moment to get expert help rather than risk a costly slip.

The simple rule to remember

If you carry away a single principle, make it this: when in doubt, ask whether the change is permanent. If the old address is gone for good and you want the new one to inherit everything, use a 301. If you genuinely intend to bring the original back, use a 302. The vast majority of real-world redirects are permanent, which is why the 301 is the default choice for most situations.

Beyond that, keep your redirects direct rather than chained, watch for accidental loops, make sure your links and sitemap point to the final addresses, and verify the actual status codes after big changes instead of assuming. Redirects are humble plumbing, but when they're set up correctly they quietly preserve everything you've built, carrying your visitors and your rankings smoothly from the old to the new. Get them right, and a site change feels seamless; get them wrong, and the damage can be invisible until it's done. A little care here pays off for years. To see how this connects to the bigger picture, it's worth revisiting how SEO works as a whole.

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Google Search Central. "Redirects and Google Search." developers.google.com.
2. Mozilla Developer Network. "HTTP redirections (301, 302)." developer.mozilla.org.
3. Internet Engineering Task Force. "HTTP status codes specification." rfc-editor.org.