How to Set Up a 301 Redirect: htaccess, nginx, WordPress, Cloudflare

What a 301 redirect is and how it works

A 301 redirect is a server response that says a page has moved for good, and gives the new address. Its full name is 301 Moved Permanently. When a browser asks for the old URL, the server does not send the page. It sends a short response with the status code 301 and a Location header, and the browser immediately requests the new address instead:

$ curl -sI https://www.example.com/old-cakes/
HTTP/2 301
location: https://www.example.com/cakes/

The visitor barely notices; the new page simply loads. Browsers remember permanent redirects, so the next visit may go straight to the new address without asking the old one at all.

People sometimes call this a 301 error, but it is not an error. Status codes in the 300 range are redirects, and the 301 is the normal, correct way to move a page. It only becomes a problem when it points somewhere wrong, loops back on itself, or is one link in a long chain.

The choice between permanent and temporary is the choice that matters for search. The redirect checker guide explains how to read the full chain of responses for any URL.

What a 301 redirect does for SEO

For search engines, a 301 is a strong signal that the new URL should replace the old one. Google follows the redirect, crawls the new page, and over time shows the new URL in results in place of the old one. Links pointing at the old address keep their value, because Google treats the new page as the destination of those links. Google has said that 301, 302 and other server-side redirects do not lose PageRank, but a permanent redirect is the clearer signal for which URL should be shown.

A few things decide whether a 301 helps or quietly hurts:

• Relevance. Redirect each old page to its closest equivalent. Sending many unrelated pages to the home page is often treated by Google as a soft 404, so the old page's value is not carried across.
• One hop. Point the old URL straight at the final address. A chain such as old page to http to https to new page wastes crawling and slows visitors. See fixing redirect chains.
• Time. Keep the redirect in place for at least a year, and longer if the old URL still has links or traffic. Removing it early turns the old address into a 404.
• Consistency. Update internal links, the XML sitemap and canonical tags to the new URL, so the site does not keep sending signals to the old one.

How to set up a 301 redirect in .htaccess

On Apache and LiteSpeed hosting, which covers most shared hosting and many WordPress sites, redirects go in the .htaccess file in the site's root folder. Make a copy of the file before editing, because a typing mistake can take the whole site down with a 500 error.

A single page

Redirect 301 /old-cakes/ https://www.example.com/cakes/

The first path is the old address relative to the site root; the second is the full new address. This uses mod_alias, which is available on almost all Apache servers.

A whole folder with a pattern

RedirectMatch 301 ^/blog/(.*)$ https://www.example.com/news/$1

A whole domain, with mod_rewrite

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?old-example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Place your redirect rules above the # BEGIN WordPress block, so WordPress does not handle the request first. Where you can, use one style throughout, either Redirect lines or RewriteRule lines, because mixing the two makes the order they run in harder to predict. The Apache redirects guide covers this in more detail.

How to set up 301 redirects in nginx

nginx does not read .htaccess. Redirects go in the server block for the site, usually in /etc/nginx/sites-available/, and you reload nginx after each change.

A single page

location = /old-cakes/ {
    return 301 https://www.example.com/cakes/;
}

A folder with a pattern

location ^~ /blog/ {
    rewrite ^/blog/(.*)$ /news/$1 permanent;
}

Bulk redirects with a map file

For dozens or hundreds of redirects, a map keeps them in one tidy file and is fast even with thousands of lines. The map block goes in the http context, for example in a file in /etc/nginx/conf.d/:

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/redirects-map.conf
map $uri $redirect_to {
    default "";
    include /etc/nginx/redirects.map;
}

# /etc/nginx/redirects.map  (old path, then new URL, each line ends with ;)
/old-cakes/         https://www.example.com/cakes/;
/about-us.html      https://www.example.com/about/;
/shop/gift-card     https://www.example.com/gift-cards/;

Then add one check inside the site's server block:

if ($redirect_to) {
    return 301 $redirect_to;
}

Test and reload with sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx. Using $uri matches the path without the query string; use $request_uri if you need to match exact URLs including parameters.

WordPress, Cloudflare and other platforms

• WordPress. If you cannot edit server files, a redirect plugin such as Redirection lets you add 301s from the dashboard, with CSV import for bulk lists and a log of 404s to catch missed URLs. Rank Math includes a redirect manager, and Yoast includes one in its premium version. Plugin redirects run after WordPress loads, so they are a little slower than server rules, but fine for most small sites. See redirects in WordPress.
• Cloudflare. Use Rules, then Redirect Rules for single redirects or patterns, and Bulk Redirects for long lists of exact URLs. Choose status code 301 and decide whether to keep the query string. Cloudflare answers before the request reaches your server. See redirects in Cloudflare.
• Plesk. Set the preferred domain, www or non-www, in Hosting settings, which adds a 301 for you. Other rules can go in .htaccess or in the additional nginx directives box under Apache and nginx Settings. See redirects in Plesk.
• Shopify. The admin has a built-in URL redirects tool with CSV import, and Shopify can create a redirect automatically when you change a product's handle.
• Next.js. The redirects() function in next.config.js with permanent: true sends a 308, which Google treats the same way as a 301.

// next.config.js
module.exports = {
  async redirects() {
    return [
      { source: '/old-cakes', destination: '/cakes', permanent: true },
    ];
  },
};

A worked example

Example Bakery renames its shop section from /products/ to /shop/ and merges two old pages, /wedding-cakes.html and /celebration-cakes.html, into one page at /cakes/occasions/. The site runs WordPress on Apache.

First, the owner exports every old URL from the sitemap and the top landing pages from analytics, and maps each one to its new home in a spreadsheet. Then she adds these lines above the WordPress block in .htaccess:

RedirectMatch 301 ^/products/(.*)$ https://www.example.com/shop/$1
Redirect 301 /wedding-cakes.html https://www.example.com/cakes/occasions/
Redirect 301 /celebration-cakes.html https://www.example.com/cakes/occasions/

She tests each old URL:

for u in /products/chocolate-cake/ /wedding-cakes.html /celebration-cakes.html; do
  curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code} -> %{redirect_url}\n" "https://www.example.com$u"
done

Every line prints 301 and the right destination. She then updates the menu and internal links to point at the new URLs directly, regenerates the sitemap, and checks one old URL with URL Inspection in Search Console. Within a few weeks the old URLs appear under Page with redirect and the new ones are indexed.

The fix, step by step

Edge cases worth knowing

• Trailing slashes. /old-cakes and /old-cakes/ are different URLs to the server. Redirect the form that actually has links, or both.
• Query strings. Apache Redirect lines pass the query string on to the new URL. On nginx and Cloudflare, check whether you want parameters kept or dropped.
• Browser caching. Browsers cache 301s, so if you make a mistake, visitors who already followed it may keep going to the wrong place. Test with curl or a private window, and see how to remove a 301 redirect if you need to undo one.
• Redirects that do nothing. A rule placed below the WordPress block, a cached page, or a Cloudflare rule overriding the server can all stop a redirect working. See 301 redirect not working.
• JavaScript and meta refresh. Google can follow these, but a server-side 301 is faster and the clearest signal. Use the others only when you cannot change the server.
• Site moves. Moving a whole domain needs page-to-page redirects plus the Change of address tool in Search Console. See redirecting a domain with 301s.

Keeping your redirects clean

• Keep a single list of every redirect, with the date and the reason, in one place: the server file, the plugin or Cloudflare, not all three.
• When you add a new redirect, check whether older redirects point at the URL you are moving, and update them to the final address so no chains form.
• Run a crawl after each batch of changes and look for 302s that should be 301s, chains of more than one hop, loops and redirects to 404 pages.
• Review the list once a year. Keep redirects that still get visits or have links; the rest can stay too, as they cost very little.
• Watch the Pages report in Search Console after big changes. The migration redirects guide explains what to look for after moving many URLs at once.