The difference between a permanent and a temporary redirect decides whether your rankings transfer to the new URL or get stuck on the old one. Using the wrong one is a quiet, common, and costly mistake. Here's how to choose.
A redirect's status code isn't a technicality — it's an instruction about whether the move is forever or just for now, and search engines act on it.
A 301 says "this page has moved permanently." Search engines respond by transferring ranking signals to the new URL and replacing the old URL in their index. A 302 says "this is a temporary detour; the original will be back." Search engines respond by keeping the original URL indexed and holding off on transferring signals. Both send a user to the same place, but they tell search engines opposite things about which URL matters — and that difference decides where your rankings end up.
Match the status code to whether the change is permanent.
Renaming or restructuring URLs, consolidating duplicate pages, migrating to HTTPS or a new domain, merging old content into a new page — anything where the old URL is gone for good. The 301 transfers authority to the new URL and replaces the old one in the index. This is the redirect you'll use the vast majority of the time.
A temporary promotion or A/B test, a page briefly down for maintenance, or geo/device routing where the original URL must stay indexed. The key word is temporary: you want the original URL to remain the indexed one because it's coming back. If you're not sure the change is temporary, it probably isn't — use a 301.
The audit flags 302s used where a 301 belongs, because it's such a common and silent error.
The damaging case is a 302 used for a permanent move. Because the 302 tells Google to keep the old URL indexed, the new page struggles to take over the rankings — authority doesn't transfer cleanly, and the old, now-empty URL can linger in results. Many platforms and frameworks default to a 302 (or an ambiguous "found" redirect) unless you explicitly specify a 301, so this happens by accident constantly. After any migration, verify that your permanent redirects actually return a 301, not a 302 — and that they go directly to the final URL without forming a chain.
Google has said a long-lived 302 may be treated like a 301 over time, but the transfer is slower and less certain than an explicit 301. Don't rely on it — if the move is permanent, declare a 301 so authority transfers promptly and predictably.
308 is the permanent equivalent of 307 in HTTP terms, mirroring 301/302 but preserving the request method. For SEO, the key distinction is still permanent (301/308) vs temporary (302/307). Most sites should use 301 for permanent moves; the method-preserving variants matter mainly for non-GET requests.
A single, direct 301 passes nearly all link equity. Value is lost not from the 301 itself but from chains, loops, using a 302 by mistake, or redirecting to an irrelevant page (like sending every dead URL to the homepage, which can be treated as a soft 404). Redirect directly, permanently, and to the most relevant live page.
Free to start. Find 302s used where 301s belong, plus chains and broken redirects.
Start my free audit