Redirects: How To Use, SEO Impact & Types (301 vs 302)

Updated by Chima Mmeje — March 24, 2025.

A redirect is a way to automatically send users and search engines from one URL to another. It helps when you move a page, change a link, or fix broken URLs. The most common types of redirects are 301, 302, meta refresh, and URL redirects.

Redirects are essential for guiding users and search engines to the correct URLs, maintaining SEO value, and ensuring a smooth browsing experience. 

Here are two reasons to implement redirects:

User experience

Redirects ensure users and search engines reach the correct page when a URL changes or a page moves. 

It helps to:

• Prevent 404 errors, which frustrate users
• Guide visitors to the right content, which improves engagement and satisfaction

SEO benefits for search engines

From an SEO perspective, redirects protect your website’s search performance by:

• Preserving link equity: Redirects transfer ranking power from the old URL to the new one, preserving link equity on the redirected page.
• Maintaining search engine rankings: Proper redirection prevents drops in visibility.
• Avoiding traffic loss: Without redirects, users and search engines can’t find the new page.

Use redirects to ensure a seamless user experience and maintain SEO value. 

Here are some common scenarios where redirects are necessary:

URL changes or page moves: After changing a URL or moving a page, redirect users and search engines to the new location.

Website updates or restructuring: Prevent broken links by guiding users to updated content during site changes.

Domain changes or consolidation: Direct traffic to the correct domain when switching or merging multiple sites.

Temporary unavailability: Use a temporary redirect (302 redirect) to send users to an alternative page while the original page is offline. This ensures users find relevant content instead of encountering errors during maintenance or when a service is temporarily unavailable.

Website migration: Maintain SEO value and content accessibility during a platform or server migration.

Redirects are essential for preserving link equity and user experience. Let's explore the most common types and their specific uses.

• 301, “moved permanently”: Best for SEO, this permanent redirect passes full link equity to the target page.
• 302, “found”: Use for short-term changes without passing link equity.
• 307 moved temporarily: These signal to search engines that the webpage will be redirected for a limited time, impacting indexing and potential ranking strength if used incorrectly.
• Meta refresh: A client-side redirect, rarely recommended for SEO.

301 moved permanently (HTTP status code)

A 301 redirect permanently moves a page and transfers full link equity to the new URL. 301 refers to the HTTP status code for this type of redirect. In most instances, the 301 redirect is the best method for implementing redirects on a website. Google often treats a 301 redirect as a stronger canonicalization signal. Hence, always use a 301 to ensure proper credit for permanent redirects.

302 found

Use 302 redirects when temporarily changing a resource’s URL. Temporary redirects, such as the 302 redirect, signal to search engines that the web page will be redirected for a limited time. If used incorrectly, they can impact indexing and potential ranking strength. 

Also, improper setup can create a redirect loop, where two URLs continuously redirect to each other, causing an infinite cycle.

307 moved temporarily 

A 307 redirect is the HTTP 1.1 successor to the 302 redirect. While search engines often treat it like a 302, using a 301 redirect is usually the best approach.

Use a 307 redirect only when content moves temporarily, such as during maintenance, and when search engines recognize the server as HTTP 1.1 compatible. 

A temporary redirect allows website administrators to temporarily redirect users to a different page without affecting the original URL's presence in search results. Since it’s almost impossible to confirm server compatibility, a 302 redirect remains the safest choice for temporary content moves.

Meta refresh

Meta refresh redirects are page-level redirects, not server-level ones. They usually take longer to load and are not recommended for SEO. 

These redirects often show a countdown with the message, “If you are not redirected in five seconds, click here.” Meta refresh redirects can be instant or delayed, with instant ones redirecting immediately and delayed ones redirecting after a set time. 

Google interprets instant meta-refresh redirects as permanent and delayed ones as temporary, which can impact SEO and user experience.

While meta refresh redirects pass some link equity, they weaken SEO performance due to slow usability and reduced link equity transfer.

A meta refresh might look like this:

<http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=https://example.com/">

Redirecting URLs helps maintain SEO value and ensures users reach the right content. Follow these best practices to avoid losing traffic or rankings:

Use 301 redirects for permanent changes

301 redirects tell search engines that the page has moved permanently. It passes full link equity, ensuring the new URL inherits the old page’s ranking power.

Search engines interpret this to mean that the page has changed location, and the content (or an updated version) can be found at the new URL. The search engines will carry any link weighting from the original page to the new URL, as below:

Be aware that when moving a page from one URL to another,  search engines will take some time to discover the 301 and credit the new page with the rankings and trust of its predecessor.

This process can be lengthier if search engine spiders rarely visit the given web page or if the new URL doesn’t properly resolve.

Avoid meta refreshes

These client-side redirects are slower, provide poor user experience, and don’t reliably pass rankings and search engine value like a 301 redirect.

Monitor search engine recognition

Search engines take time to recognize and credit 301 redirects, especially if the original page has a low crawl frequency.

Handle domain migrations carefully

When moving content between domains, use 301 redirects sitewide. Since search engines scrutinize cross-domain redirects, the process can take longer to fully pass SEO value. For more on moving sites, see Achieving an SEO-Friendly Domain Migration: The Infographic.

Redirects help users and search engines reach the right pages. But too many redirects, or the wrong kind, can slow down your site, cause indexing issues, and impact SEO performance. Moz Pro’s On-Demand Crawl makes it easy to find and fix redirect problems.

Step 1: Run an On-Demand Crawl

Redirects help users and search engines reach the right pages. However, too many redirects or the wrong kind can slow down your site and cause indexing issues that affect SEO performance. 

Moz Pro’s Site Crawl makes it easy to find and fix redirect problems.

Step 2: Check redirect issues in the All Issues chart

At the top of the crawl report, look for the All Issues bar chart. Redirect issues are highlighted in light blue. 

This section gives you an overview of all redirect problems, such as:

• Temporary redirects (302 or 307)
• Redirect chains
• Meta refreshes

Step 3: Filter pages by status code

Scroll down to the Pages Crawled table. Use the Status Codes filter and select 3xx to view all pages returning redirect responses. 

This shows the affected URLs along with crawl depth, number of issues, and page authority.

Step 4: Filter by redirect issue type

In the same table, open the Issue Types dropdown to view issues like :

• Temporary redirect
• Redirect chain
• Meta refresh (if applicable)

These filters help you pinpoint exactly what kind of redirect issue exists so you can prioritize fixes.

Step 5: Review and resolve

Temporary redirects (like 302s and 307s) are fine for short-term use, but permanent redirects (301s) are better for SEO. If you spot redirect chains or meta refreshes, streamline the path to a single destination to reduce load time and crawl complexity.

After updating redirect settings in your CMS or server config, rerun the crawl to confirm that the issues are resolved.

URL redirects help guide users and search engines to the correct website location following changes like rebranding or domain name variations. Thankfully, most modern CMS platforms provide built-in solutions or plugins to easily manage 301 and 302 redirects. 

For example, RankMath, a free WordPress plugin, includes redirection as a core feature. Many hosting and CDN platforms also offer redirection management within their admin panels.

301 redirects in .htaccess

A common way of implementing redirects is using a .htaccess file, on Apache servers. Setting the correct redirect target in .htaccess is crucial to ensure proper redirection, which helps search engine indexing and improves user experience. Here are some common redirection directives:

1. To redirect an entire domain to a new site:

Redirect 301 / http://www.example.com/

Replace the example domain with your new redirect destination. This will 301 redirect every page on your site to the corresponding URL on the target domain.

2. To redirect a single page

Redirect 301 /oldpage/ http://www.example.com/newpage/

You can use this redirect across different domains, or on your own site.

3. Using Apache mod_rewrite

Apache mod_rewrite is a powerful tool for creating redirects. It allows you to rewrite URLs and redirect traffic to different pages or domains.

To use Apache mod_rewrite, you need access to your server configuration files and be familiar with regular expressions (regex). It is crucial to ensure that redirects target content similar to the requested URL to maintain relevance in search results and improve user experience.

You can also use Apache mod_rewrite in your .htaccess file for more flexible redirection. For example, here’s the code to redirect from a non-www to a www subdomain.
 

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

For more .htaccess scenarios, the folks at Linchpin SEO have put together a good resource

PHP redirect

Here is an example of implementing a 301 redirect using PHP:

<?php
header("Location: https://www.example.com/", true, 301);
exit();
?>

JavaScript redirect

JavaScript redirects are not recommended for SEO because they execute client-side rather than server-side. While Google may interpret JavaScript redirects as 301s, this isn’t guaranteed.

Since search engines rely on server-side signals for indexing, JavaScript redirection can lead to outdated URLs being indexed, which harms search rankings. Additionally, JavaScript doesn’t allow you to specify an HTTP status code for the redirect.

While not ideal, here’s how to implement a JavaScript redirect:

<script type="text/javascript">    function redirect1(){        window.location = "http://www.example.com/new-url/"  }   setTimeout('redirect1()', 5000);   </script>

To set the location property to the redirect target URL within an HTML script block, you can use window.location as shown above. This method informs Google Search about the execution of JavaScript during the crawling of a URL.

Using WordPress plugins

WordPress plugins can be used to create redirects easily and efficiently. There are many plugins available that offer redirect functionality, including Yoast SEO and RankMath.

To use a WordPress plugin to create a redirect, follow these steps:

Install and activate the plugin: Choose a plugin that suits your needs and install it from the WordPress plugin repository. Once installed, activate the plugin.

Go to the plugin settings page: Navigate to the settings page of the plugin you installed. This is usually found under the “Tools” or “SEO” menu in the WordPress dashboard.

Enter the old URL and the new URL: In the plugin settings, enter the URL you want to redirect (the old URL) and the URL you want to redirect to (the new URL).

Choose the type of redirect: Select the type of redirect you want to use (301, 302, etc.). For permanent redirects, choose 301.

Save the changes: Save your settings to apply the redirect.

Using WordPress plugins to create redirects is a user-friendly and efficient way to manage URL changes and ensure that your website maintains its SEO value.

Using Wix

Wix is a website builder that allows you to create redirects easily. To create a redirect in Wix, follow these steps:

Go to the Wix dashboard: Log in to your Wix account and navigate to the dashboard of the website you want to manage.

Click on “SEO” in the left-hand menu: In the dashboard, find the “SEO” option in the left-hand menu and click on it.

Click on “Redirects”: In the SEO settings, find the “Redirects” option and click on it.

Enter the old URL and the new URL: In the redirects settings, enter the URL you want to redirect (the old URL) and the URL you want to redirect to (the new URL).

Choose the type of Redirect: Select the type of redirect you want to use (301, 302, etc.). For permanent redirects, choose 301.

Save the changes: Save your settings to apply the redirect.

Using Wix to create redirects is straightforward and ensures that your website maintains its SEO value and provides a seamless user experience.

What is an example of a redirect?

An example of a redirect is when example.com/old-page automatically takes users to example.com/new-page after the old page moves. This usually happens through a 301 redirect, which ensures users and search engines find the updated content.

How do I turn off a redirect?

To turn off a redirect, access the platform where it's set up:

• WordPress: Go to your redirection plugin settings (like RankMath or Yoast SEO) and delete the redirect rule.
• .htaccess: If the redirect is in a .htaccess file, remove the corresponding Redirect 301 or RewriteRule line.
• Hosting or CDN panel: Check your hosting or CDN admin panel for redirect settings and disable the rule.

How do I fix redirects on my website?

Fixing redirects depends on the issue:

• Broken or endless loops: Check your .htaccess file or redirection plugin for conflicting rules and remove duplicates.
• Incorrect target: Update the redirect rule to point to the correct URL.
• Too many redirects: Limit chains by redirecting directly from the original URL to the final destination.
• Temporary redirects: Ensure proper setup of temporary redirects, such as 302 redirects, to signal to search engines that the change is not permanent. Incorrect use can impact indexing and ranking strength.

Regularly auditing your site with tools like Moz Pro and Google Search Console can help identify and fix redirect issues.