HTTP redirects are a way of forwarding visitors (both humans and search bots) from one URL to another. This is useful in situations like these:
HTTP is a request/response protocol. The client, typically a web browser, sends a requests to a server and the server returns a response. Below is an example of how Firefox requests the home page of the drlinkcheck.com website:
In this example, the server responds with a 200 (OK) status code and includes the requested page in the body.
If the server wants the client to look for the page under a different URL, it returns a status code from the 3xx range and specifies the target URL in the Location header.
HTTP status codes 301 and 308 are used if a resource is permanently moved to a new location. A permanent redirect is the right choice when restructuring a website or migrating it from HTTP to HTTPS.
The difference between code 301 and 308 is in the details. If a client sees a 308 redirect, it MUST repeat the exact same request on the new location, whereas the client may change a POST request into a GET request in the case of a 301 redirect.
This means that, if a POST with a body is made and the server returns a 308 status code, the client must do a POST request with the same body to the new location. In the case of a 301 status code, the client may do this but is not required to do so (in practice, almost all clients proceed with a GET request).
The problem with HTTP status code 308 is that it’s relatively new (introduced in RFC 7538 in April 2015) and, therefore, it is not supported by all browsers and crawlers. For instance, Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 and 8 doesn’t understand 308 status codes and simply displays an empty page, instead of following the redirect.
Due to still limited support of 308, the recommendation is to always go with 301 redirects, unless you require POST requests to be redirected properly and are certain that all clients understand the 308 response code.
The 302, 303, and 307 status codes indicate that a resource is temporarily available under a new URL, meaning that the redirect has a limited life span and (typically) should not be cached. An example is a website that is undergoing maintenance and redirects visitors to a temporary “Under Construction” page. Marking a redirect as temporary is also advisable when redirecting based on visitor-specific criteria such as geographic location, time, or device.
The HTTP/1.0 specification (released in 1996) only included status code 302 for temporary redirects. Although it was specified that clients are not allowed to change the request method on the redirected request, most browsers ignored the standard and always performed a GET on the redirect URL. That’s the reason HTTP/1.1 (released in 1999) introduced status codes 303 and 307 to make it unambiguously clear how a client should react.
HTTP status code 303 (“See Other”) tells a client that a resource is temporarily available at a different location and explicitly instructs the client to issue a GET request on the new URL, regardless of which request method was originally used.
Status code 307 (“Temporary Redirect”) instructs a client to repeat the request with another URL, while using the same request method as in the original request. For instance, a POST request must almost be repeated using another POST request.
In practice, browsers and crawlers handle 302 redirects the same way as specified for 303, meaning that redirects are always performed as GET requests.
Even though status codes 303 and 307 were standardized in 1999, there are still clients that don’t implement them correctly. Just like with status code 308, the recommendation, therefore, is to stick with 302 redirects, unless you need a POST request to be repeated (use 307 in this case) or know that intended clients support codes 303 and 307.
When Google sees a permanent 301 or 308 redirect, it removes the old page from the index and replaces it with the page from the new location. The question is how this affects the ranking of the page? In this video, Matt Cuts explains that you lose only “a tiny little bit” of link juice if you do a 301 redirect. Therefore, permanent redirects are the way to go if you want to restructure your site without negatively affecting its Google rankings.
Temporary redirects (status codes 302, 303, and 307) on the other hand are more or less ignored by Google. The search engine knows that the redirect is just of temporary nature and keeps the original page indexed without transferring any link juice to the destination URL.
Another aspect to consider when using HTTP redirects is the performance impact. Each redirect requires an extra HTTP request to the server, typically adding a few hundred milliseconds to the loading time of the page. This is bad from a user experience perspective and puts unnecessary stress on the web server. While a single redirect doesn’t hurt too much, redirect chains in which one redirect leads to another redirect should definitely be avoided.
If you want to identify all redirects on your website, our link checker can help – just enter the URL of your website and hit the Start Check button. Once the check is complete, you will see the number of found temporary and permanent redirects under Redirects. Click on one of the items to get a list of all redirected links. If you hover over a link item and click the Details button, you can see the entire redirect chain.
Five different redirect status codes – no wonder many website owners get confused when it comes to redirects. My advice is the following:
I hope this sheds some light onto how HTTP redirects work and which HTTP status code to choose in which situation.
