Question 1

What is a 301 redirect?

Accepted Answer

An HTTP status code that tells browsers and search engines a URL has moved permanently to a new location, and to use the new URL going forward. It's the standard redirect for permanent URL changes — site migrations, URL restructuring, domain changes — and passes essentially full ranking signal to the destination once Google observes the redirect is stable.

Question 2

Does a 301 redirect pass all link equity to the destination?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as confirmed by Google's Gary Illyes in 2016 and reiterated multiple times since. The earlier "15-25% equity loss through redirects" was based on outdated Googlebot behavior. In 2026, 301 redirects pass PageRank at essentially 100% after the redirect is observed to be stable (typically within a few crawl cycles). The bigger concern is redirect chains — each additional hop reduces crawlability and user experience, even if equity passes cleanly.

Question 3

When should I use 302 instead of 301?

Accepted Answer

302 is for genuinely temporary changes: A/B tests, seasonal landing pages, or temporary outages where the original URL will be restored. Using 302 for permanent moves is a common mistake — Google eventually treats a stable 302 like a 301, but there's a delay and ambiguity. When in doubt about permanence, use 301. The redirect can always be updated if circumstances change.

Question 4

What's the difference between server-side and client-side redirects for SEO?

Accepted Answer

A server-side redirect (301/302/307/308) is sent in the HTTP response header before any page content loads — crawlers see it instantly and it's the reliable, recommended method. A client-side redirect (a JavaScript redirect, or a meta refresh tag) requires the browser or crawler to load and execute page content first, adding latency and depending on the crawler actually rendering JavaScript. Server-side redirects are strongly preferred for SEO; reserve client-side redirects for cases where server-side isn't technically possible.

Question 5

What is a redirect chain and why does it matter?

Accepted Answer

A redirect chain is when URL A redirects to B, which redirects to C (or longer). Every hop adds HTTP round-trip latency (50-100ms per hop), meaning users on a 3-hop chain wait an extra 200ms. More importantly, Googlebot may not follow chains beyond 5 hops, and link equity attribution becomes murky in long chains. Audit your redirects quarterly and collapse any chain longer than 1 hop to a direct redirect to the final destination.

Question 6

What is a redirect loop and how do I fix it?

Accepted Answer

A redirect loop is when URL A redirects to B and B redirects back to A — an infinite cycle. Both browsers and crawlers detect loops and return a browser error ("This page isn't redirecting properly" in Chrome). Loops are most commonly caused by: misconfigured CDN rules that override server-side redirects, conflicting HTTPS/HTTP canonicalization rules, or incorrect htaccess or nginx redirect logic. Fix by tracing the exact redirect path (use curl -I or a redirect checker tool) and identifying which rule creates the circular reference.

Question 7

Do redirect chains affect crawl budget?

Accepted Answer

Yes — each hop in a chain consumes crawl budget that could otherwise go toward discovering new or updated content, and a long enough chain risks Googlebot abandoning it before reaching the final destination. On large sites with thousands of URLs, accumulated redirect chains are a meaningful, often-overlooked drain on how much of the site gets crawled and re-crawled.

Question 8

How do redirects impact Core Web Vitals?

Accepted Answer

Each redirect hop adds a full HTTP round trip before the browser can even start loading the destination page, directly increasing Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Time to First Byte. A single redirect is usually a minor cost, but chains of 2+ hops — especially combined with slow DNS lookups or a client-side JavaScript redirect — can push a page from a 'Good' to a 'Needs Improvement' Core Web Vitals rating on mobile connections.

Question 9

What is the difference between 301 redirects and canonical tags?

Accepted Answer

Both signal a preferred URL, but they solve different problems. A 301 redirect physically sends users and crawlers to a new URL — the old URL stops resolving as itself. A canonical tag lets the old URL remain fully accessible and functional while telling search engines which version to index and rank; use it when multiple live URLs need to stay reachable (parameter variants, duplicate content) rather than when a URL has genuinely moved.

Question 10

How do I audit redirects on my site?

Accepted Answer

SearchChamp's Site Auditor crawls your site and maps every redirect, identifying chains (2+ hops), loops, and redirects pointing to 404 pages. For manual auditing: use curl -IL to trace the full redirect chain from any URL. In Google Search Console, the Coverage report flags "Redirect Error" issues. Screaming Frog's free tier crawls up to 500 URLs and maps redirect chains by default.

Question 11

Can 301 redirects be used for internationalization?

Accepted Answer

301 redirects and internationalization solve different problems and shouldn't be conflated. Redirecting all visitors from one country to a locale-specific URL based on IP or browser language is a common but risky pattern — it can prevent Googlebot (which typically crawls from the US) from ever discovering your other locale pages. Use hreflang tags to signal locale alternatives to search engines, and reserve redirects for actual URL moves, not locale routing.

Question 12

When changing domains, should you use sitewide 301 redirects or redirect page-by-page?

Accepted Answer

Page-by-page (1:1) redirects — mapping each old URL to its exact corresponding new URL — consistently outperform a single sitewide redirect to the new homepage. A sitewide catch-all redirect loses the specific topical relevance of each old page and typically causes a larger, longer-lasting traffic and ranking dip during a domain migration.

Question 13

Do internal 301 redirects within a site affect SEO?

Accepted Answer

Yes, though the effect is smaller than an external migration. An internal link pointing through a redirect instead of directly to the final URL still passes equity, but it adds an unnecessary crawl hop and can obscure your internal link graph. Update internal links to point directly at the final destination whenever you set up a permanent redirect — this is exactly the kind of chain SearchChamp's Site Audit flags.

What is Redirects?

Redirects in context

Example

Related terms

Common questions about Redirects.

Map every redirect chain, loop, and dead end.