301 redirect

A redirect has two parts: a status code and a destination. The status code is what makes it a 301 rather than a 302, 307 or 308, and it is the part that tells search engines how long you mean it. Google's documentation sorts these into permanent and temporary. A permanent redirect shows the target in results, and a temporary one shows the source.

Redirects are the strongest of the signals Google uses to pick a canonical URL, ahead of a rel="canonical" link and well ahead of sitemap inclusion. That is why a migration leans on them. The rule belongs on the server or the edge, so it answers before any page loads.

Why it matters for a marketing site

Old URLs carry the links other sites point at, the bookmarks people kept and the positions already earned in search. A URL that changes with no redirect sends all of that to a 404. It rarely shows on launch day, because the new site looks fine to anyone who starts at the homepage.

How I handle it

A path stays unless there is a reason to change it, and a path that changes gets one direct redirect. The map is built from an inventory of every public URL and tested against that inventory, not against a sample. This site's own build fails on a loop, a two-hop chain or a destination that is not there, because all three shipped here once.

Example

Say a Webflow site keeps posts at /blog-posts/pricing-guide and the new site keeps them at /resources/pricing-guide/. One rule answers the old path with a 301 to the new one. If a later rename moves it again, the first rule gets re-pointed at the final address, so nobody takes two hops.

Common mistakes

• Sending everything to the homepage. Google can read that as a soft 404, and the reader who wanted one article lands somewhere that does not have it.
• Leaving chains behind. Every rename adds a hop unless the older rules get updated too.
• Mapping from the sitemap alone. A sitemap lists what the platform chose to publish. PDFs, old campaign pages and URLs with inbound links can be missing from it.
• Using a 302 for a permanent move. A temporary redirect tells Google to keep showing the source page in results.