Quickguides: What Does The Status Code 301 Mean?

01 Feb, 2020

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HTTP Status Code 301

The HTTP Status Code 301 is part of the 3XX series of HTTP status codes. This series of codes are commonly referred to as the redirection status codes.

The HTTP status code 301 is most commonly used by site designers to show that a URL has permanently moved. If a web designer is changing the location of a page, they can use the 301 status code to redirect traffic and links from the old URL to the new one. This will also help search engines to find the new URL for the site and to transfer it across its rankings. 


Using appropriate programming, it is possible to redirect a user directly to another URL without them noticing. It is important that the page that the user is redirected to has the content they are expecting; the redirecting process must not mislead the user in any way. Using the 301 redirects to deceive the user is a Blackhat activity and therefore forbidden by Google. 

What Do 301 Error Codes Mean?

If you are having issues with error messages referring to 301 error codes, this is likely to be due to issues with redirects. Check to make sure that the URLs you are redirecting have the correct addresses and are implemented using 301 redirects that conform with  Google's best practices. 

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