Status codes · one code301 — Moved Permanently
What a 301 Moved Permanently response means, who is at fault, what a visitor should do and what the server owner should do.
Open the reference on this codeWhat to do
If it is someone else's site
Nothing to do: the address simply changed and the browser has already opened the new one. If the redirect landed you on the home page instead of the page you wanted, that page is probably gone and the redirect is a blanket «everything to the home page»; use the site search instead.
If it is your server
A 301 passes the page's weight to the new address, which is why a move needs it rather than a 302. Two rules: point at the specific page rather than the home page — a blanket redirect is treated as a soft 404; and avoid chains, each extra hop loses weight and crawl budget. For an API a permanent move is 308: after a 301 browsers turn POST into GET, and the request silently becomes a different one.
Easily confused with
a temporary move: no weight is passed and the old address stays canonical. Often set by mistake where a 301 was meant.
302 →the same permanent move, but the method survives — a POST stays a POST. This is what an API needs.
308 →the address did not move, it ceased to exist. Redirecting to the home page instead of a 404 only makes it worse.
404 →How to check
the whole redirect chain at once: one hop is healthy, three are not
check the code without following the redirect
The reference holds sixty-four codes searchable by number, name and meaning — plus a breakdown of confusing pairs such as 401 and 403.
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