301 Status Code: What a Permanent Redirect Means

A 301 status code is a message from a web server saying that the page you asked for has moved permanently to a new address. Your browser follows the move automatically, which is why you usually see the new page rather than the code itself.

The word that matters is permanent. A 301 tells browsers, search engines, and anything else reading the response that the old address is finished and the new one should be used from now on, and they are allowed to remember it.

What is an HTTP status code?

Every time a browser asks a server for a page, the server answers with a three-digit number before it sends anything else. That number is the status code, and it says what kind of answer follows. Codes starting with 2 mean success, codes starting with 3 mean the page is somewhere else, codes starting with 4 mean the request was wrong, and codes starting with 5 mean the server failed.

301 sits in the redirect group. It does not mean an error, and a site full of 301s is not broken.

What is the difference between 301 and 302?

Both send the browser to a different address. The difference is how long the move is meant to last.

• A 301 is permanent. Browsers may cache it, and search engines transfer the old address's standing to the new one.
• A 302, and its stricter relative 307, is temporary. The old address stays the real one, and nothing should be remembered.

Using 301 where you meant temporary is the mistake that hurts, because visitors keep going to the new address even after you undo the redirect. Their browsers cached it, and you cannot reach into them to clear it.

When should a site return a 301?

1. A page has a new address and the old one will never come back.
2. The site moved to a new domain name.
3. The site switched to a secure address and every old plain request should land on the secure version.
4. The site standardised on one form of its address, with or without the leading three letters, and sends the other form to it.
5. Two pages were merged and one address should now lead to the survivor.

Anything temporary, such as maintenance, a seasonal page, or a test, is not a case for 301.

How do you check whether a page returns a 301?

1. Open your browser's developer tools and switch to the network tab before loading the page. Each request appears with its status code beside it, and a redirect shows as two rows: the 301 and the page it led to.
2. Tick the option to preserve the log, or the redirect scrolls away when the new page loads.
3. Alternatively use a command line tool that shows response headers. The status line and the location header, which carries the new address, are both printed without following the move.
4. Or use an online redirect checker, which lists every hop in the chain in order.

What you are looking for in all three cases is the same pair: the code 301 and the location header telling you where it points.

Why do you keep getting redirected when you try to sign in?

A redirect loop is when address A sends you to address B and B sends you back to A. The browser gives up after a few rounds and shows a message about too many redirects. On login pages this is common and usually has one of these causes:

• A stale or broken cookie, so the site sees you as signed out at one address and signed in at another.
• An old cached 301 in your browser pointing at an address the site has since changed.
• A mismatch between secure and plain versions of the site, each sending you to the other.

Try this order: open the site in a private window, and if that works, clear cookies and cached data for that site in your normal browser. If the private window loops too, the problem is on the site's side and there is nothing you can fix from your end.

How do you clear a cached 301?

Browsers remember permanent redirects, sometimes for a long time, and a normal reload does not touch them. Clear the cached data for that specific site rather than everything, then close and reopen the browser. A private window is the quick test that tells you whether caching was the cause before you clear anything.

If a site owner needs to undo a 301 that visitors have cached, the honest answer is that they cannot force it. The usual approach is to leave the redirect in place, publish the correct content at the destination, and let the cached copies expire.

What does a 301 mean for your saved links?

Bookmarks keep working, because the browser follows the redirect each time until it caches it. What breaks is a chain: an address that redirects to another address that redirects again. Each hop adds delay, and long chains sometimes end in a failure that looks like the page is gone.

If a bookmark stopped working after a site moved, delete it and save the destination address directly rather than the old one.

Why does a 301 sometimes land on the wrong page?

Because whoever set it up redirected to a general page instead of the matching one. Sending every old address to the homepage is technically a valid 301 and practically useless: the visitor wanted one specific page and got a starting point.

If that happens to you, search the site for the page title you were after. If it is your own site, map old addresses to their real replacements one by one; the homepage catch-all should be the last resort, not the plan. Account and site settings are managed at the company’s official website.