301 Redirect
An HTTP response indicating that a resource has moved permanently and directing clients and crawlers to its new URL.
301 redirects preserve user journeys and search equity during URL changes, migrations, renames, and content consolidation while reducing broken links.
When a glossary term is renamed, the former URL returns a 301 directly to the new canonical term page and the sitemap and internal links are updated.
Long chains, loops, irrelevant destinations, soft redirects, and conflicting canonical signals can delay crawling or cause unexpected indexing. A 301 does not repair poor migration planning automatically.
The server returns status code 301 with a Location header. Browsers follow the destination, and search engines generally treat the redirect as a strong signal to consolidate indexing signals at the new URL. Redirects should point directly to the closest equivalent destination.
Systems Architecture
Google Search Central — Redirects — https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects; RFC 9110 — https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110
