301
3xxSEO: positiveRFC 9110
HTTP 301 Moved Permanently
The resource has permanently moved to a new URL. Google transfers link equity to the destination.
Indexable by Google
No
Link equity passed
Yes
SEO Impact
Positive
Category
3XX
SEO Impact
301 is the gold-standard permanent redirect for SEO. Google consolidates link equity (PageRank) from the source to the destination URL, typically within a few crawl cycles. Use 301 for: HTTP → HTTPS migration, domain changes, URL structure changes, and merging duplicate content. Unlike 302, Google indexes the destination URL, not the source.
When to Use 301
Any permanent URL change. HTTP→HTTPS, domain migrations, removing trailing slashes, restructuring URL paths.
HTTP Response Example
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently Location: https://example.com/new-url
Test with cURL
$ curl -I https://example.com/old-url
Test this in your browser
Check how HTTP 301 responses affect your actual URLs