Answer · SEO Services
What’s a 301 Redirect?
The short answer
A 301 redirect is a permanent server-side redirect from one URL to another. When a user or search engine requests the old URL, the server responds with ‘this page has permanently moved to [new URL]’ and forwards the request. 301s preserve 90-99% of SEO ranking signals from the old URL.
№ 01The longer answer
Use cases: URL structure changes during a redesign, retired pages consolidated into a parent page, domain migrations (example.com to newexample.com), HTTPS migration (HTTP to HTTPS), trailing slash standardization, removing parameter URLs.
301 vs 302: 301 is permanent and passes ranking signals. 302 is temporary and Google treats it differently — it doesn’t fully consolidate signals because it expects the redirect to be removed. For SEO purposes, always use 301 unless the redirect really is temporary (under 60 days).
Implementation on WordPress: the Redirection plugin handles individual URL redirects via the database. For bulk redirects or domain migrations, server-level config (Apache .htaccess or Nginx config) is faster. Cloudflare also supports redirect rules at the edge.
Redirect chains: avoid them. A chain (URL A redirects to URL B redirects to URL C) loses ranking signal at each hop. Modern Google handles single-hop 301s cleanly; chains of 3+ hops can lose 30-50% of equity. Audit for chains in Screaming Frog quarterly.
№ 02How long should a 301 redirect stay in place?
Indefinitely. 301s are permanent. Once the search index updates (90-180 days), the redirect could theoretically be removed, but there’s no upside to removing it — old bookmarks, old backlinks, and old shares still point to the old URL.
№ 03Do 301 redirects pass full SEO value?
90-99% of ranking signals pass through a 301. The exact percentage depends on context: clean single-hop 301 to a highly-relevant new URL passes nearly everything. Multi-hop chains or 301s to less-relevant pages pass less.
№ 04Can I 301 redirect to a competitor’s site?
Yes technically. No strategically. Your inbound links would pass equity to the competitor. Even if you’ve sold the business, 301-ing to the new owner’s site preserves the asset; 301-ing to a competitor wastes it.
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