SEO & performance
301 redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent forward from one URL to another. The browser and the search engine follow it automatically, and search engines transfer the old address's standing to the new one.
Redirects are how a site changes its structure without losing what the old structure had earned. When a page moves, the old URL keeps existing in bookmarks, in other sites' links and in the search index. A 301 tells everyone where it went. Without one, all of that resolves to a not-found page and the value is lost.
The rules are simple and often broken. One hop: a redirect pointing at another redirect wastes a request and leaks value. To the closest equivalent: sending every retired page to the homepage is treated as a soft error, not a redirect. Permanent means permanent: a 302, the temporary variant, tells search engines to keep the old address, which is almost never what a migration intends.
Redirect maps should be built before launch from the URL inventory, tested before launch, and kept in place long after. Removing them "once traffic has moved" removes the thing that moved it.
Redirects in a Webflow migrationSEO & performance