What Is a 301 Redirect?

Full transcript

Imagine you send a letter to a friend, but they've already moved to a brand new address across town. The post office steps in and tells you: this address no longer works, the person has permanently moved somewhere else. On the internet, the same thing happens when a webpage gets a new permanent home at a completely different URL. The server responds with the code 301, which is its official way of saying: this document has been permanently moved. Your browser receives that signal and automatically follows the new path, taking you to the correct destination without any extra effort from you. Search engines also remember this permanent change, updating their records so that future visitors always land in the right place from the very first click. So a 301 redirect is simply the web's polite way of saying: we've moved permanently — please follow us to our new home and update your bookmarks accordingly.