301 redirect: definition and examples

301 redirect

A 301 redirect is an HTTP response that tells browsers and search engines a page has moved permanently to a new URL. Google treats it as a strong signal that the new URL should replace the old one in search.

Also called

301, Permanent redirect, 301 Moved Permanently, HTTP 301, 308 redirect

Why it matters for a SaaS website

Every renamed feature, merged blog post, retired landing page and platform migration changes URLs. Without a redirect, links from other sites, bookmarks, ads and search results all land on a 404, and the authority the old page built does not pass on. With a correct 301 to the closest matching page, visitors and rankings follow the content to its new home. That makes redirects the single most important line item in any website migration.

How DesignMe handles it

On every migration we build the redirect map as a spreadsheet with three columns: old URL, new URL and redirect type. Each old URL is kept as is, redirected to its new location, or, if retired, redirected to the closest relevant page. We collapse chains to a single hop, test every line before and after launch, and re-crawl the live site to catch gaps. Framer and Webflow both handle path redirects natively in site settings; the platform is rarely the hard part, the completeness of the map is. We have seen the cost of gaps first hand: our own relaunch had a short traffic dip caused by missing redirects, which a clean 301 map fixed.

Example

Say a SaaS company renames its “Insights” section to “Blog” and changes 140 post URLs from /insights/post-name to /blog/post-name. A single wildcard rule redirects the whole folder with one hop per URL. Two posts merged into one get individual 301s to the merged post, and a discontinued product page points to the product that replaced it rather than the homepage.

Common mistakes

Redirecting dead pages to the homepage. Google can treat many old URLs sent to one unrelated page as soft 404s.
Using 302 for permanent moves. It tells Google to keep the old URL.
Leaving chains. Update older redirects to point straight at the final URL.
Deleting redirects early. Google recommends keeping them for at least a year.

Questions

What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?

A 301 says the move is permanent, so Google treats the new URL as the canonical and shows it in results. A 302 says the move is temporary, so Google treats it as a weak signal and may keep the old URL indexed. Use 302 only for genuinely short-term moves, such as a page under maintenance.

What is the difference between 301 and 308?

Both are permanent redirects, and Google treats 308 the same as 301. The difference is in HTTP itself: with a 301, a browser may change a POST request to GET when it follows the redirect, while a 308 keeps the original method. For ordinary page moves, either works for search.