Website Redirect Checker: 301 vs 302 Quick Audit
15-30 minute audit to check 301 vs 302 usage, find redirect chains, and align redirects with SEO intent.
Vincent JOSSE
Vincent is an SEO Expert who graduated from Polytechnique where he studied graph theory and machine learning applied to search engines.
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Redirects are usually “set and forget”, until rankings dip, pages stop indexing, or a migration quietly bleeds authority. A website redirect checker lets you confirm one key thing fast: are you using 301s for permanent moves and 302s for truly temporary ones (and are they sending users and bots to the right final URL)?
This quick audit is designed for busy teams. It prioritizes the mistakes that create real SEO ambiguity.
301 vs 302
At a high level:
301 (Moved Permanently) tells crawlers the old URL has a new long-term home.
302 (Found) tells crawlers the move is temporary and the original URL may come back.
Google can follow either, but the status code still matters because it influences canonicalization and how consistently engines treat the target as the “real” URL. Google’s documentation is explicit about using the right redirect type for the situation in its redirects guidance.
Code | Meaning | Best for | Common SEO outcome | Typical risk if misused |
301 | Permanent redirect | Migrations, slug changes, consolidations | Target URL is more likely to become canonical | If used for short-lived tests, you can “lock in” the wrong URL |
302 | Temporary redirect | Short campaigns, maintenance windows, geo routing (carefully) | Source URL may remain canonical for longer | If used for permanent moves, indexing can stay split or delayed |
If you need method-preserving behavior for POST requests, 307 and 308 exist (HTTP semantics are defined in RFC 9110). Most SEO audits still focus on 301 vs 302 because they are the most common on websites.
Why a wrong status code hurts
A “wrong” redirect often does not cause an immediate penalty. The damage is usually operational and compounding:
Canonical confusion: the engine may keep treating the old URL as primary, especially when other signals disagree (internal links, sitemap URLs, canonicals).
Slower consolidation after changes: migrations and URL cleanups take longer to settle.
Mixed signals across systems: analytics, A/B tools, CDNs, and caches can behave differently depending on 301 vs 302.
More crawl waste: bots spend time on URLs that should have been cleanly retired.
If you publish or update a lot of URLs, redirect hygiene becomes a scaling problem, not a one-off technical task.
Quick audit
This is the fastest path to answers. You can do it in 15 to 30 minutes for a targeted URL set.
1) Pick the right URL sample
Don’t start by crawling your entire site unless you already suspect a large systemic issue. Start with URLs that matter:
Top organic landing pages (from GA4 or Search Console)
Recently changed slugs
Old URLs with backlinks (from Ahrefs, Semrush, or GSC links)
Template patterns (for example, /blog/ old slug format, trailing slash vs no slash)
A tight list of 50 to 300 URLs is enough to surface the “wrong 302s” that cause most headaches.
2) Check one URL like a detective
Before you batch anything, verify how your stack behaves (CDN, www vs non-www, HTTP vs HTTPS).
Use curl to see headers clearly:
You’re looking for:
The first status code (301 or 302)
The Location header (the next hop)
Whether it chains into more hops
To follow the full path:
If the final URL is not a 200, or if you see multiple hops, make a note. Even if your main goal is “301 vs 302”, chains often explain why things are unstable.
3) Run a batch website redirect checker
Pick one method that matches your time and tooling.
For a fast, no-install check, use a web-based redirect checker for individual URLs.
For a reliable batch view, use a crawler like Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Mode: List) so you can paste your URL list and export all redirect hops.
If you want a quick command-line batch check:
This is not a replacement for a crawler export, but it is excellent for spot-checking environments (staging vs production) or verifying a fix.
4) Classify each redirect
The goal is not “make everything 301.” The goal is to align codes with intent and remove ambiguity.
Use this simple rubric:
Should be 301: the old URL will never come back.
Should be 302: the old URL is expected to return, and you want engines to keep the original URL as the primary reference.
When in doubt, check the business context. Many “temporary” redirects live for months and quietly become permanent, they should have been 301 from day one.
Red flags
Use this table as your triage sheet after you export results from your website redirect checker.
Red flag | What it looks like | Why it matters | Safer fix |
Permanent move using 302 | Old product or blog URL 302s to the new slug | Can slow consolidation and keep the old URL “alive” in the index | Switch to 301 once you’re sure it is permanent |
Temporary campaign using 301 | Promo URL 301s to a landing page during a short event | Can cause long-lived caching and long-term canonicalization you did not want | Use 302 for the promo window, then restore the original |
Redirect to non-equivalent page | Old “/pricing” redirects to homepage | Users bounce, engines may treat it as soft 404 behavior | Redirect to the closest equivalent, or return 404/410 if it is truly gone |
Mixed signals | Redirect says one thing, canonical tag points elsewhere | Confuses bots, increases re-crawls and URL swaps | Align: final URL should self-canonicalize, internal links should match |
Chain after a “correct” 301 | 301 -> 301 -> 200 | Adds latency and crawl waste, can reduce clarity | Collapse to a single hop to the final URL |
If you spot many chains, you likely have overlapping rules (CDN + origin, CMS plugin + server config) or layered migrations.
Fixes
Collapse to one hop
If /a redirects to /b and /b redirects to /c, update the rule so /a goes straight to /c. Keep /b redirecting to /c too, but eliminate the middle step.
Align internal links
A common cause of redirect “stickiness” is that your own site still links to the old URL. That keeps sending bots back through the redirect.
After you fix the redirect rule, update:
Navigation links
In-content internal links
Canonical tags
XML sitemap URLs
If your team publishes frequently, internal link hygiene is one of the highest ROI places to automate. Tools that automate content ops and internal linking (for example, BlogSEO’s internal linking automation) can reduce how often new posts reference URLs that later redirect.
Preserve query parameters when needed
Marketing and faceted URLs often include parameters. If your redirect drops them, you can lose attribution and sometimes content equivalence.
This is stack-specific (CDN rules, Nginx rewrite flags, application router). The audit takeaway is simple: test one URL with parameters and confirm the final URL keeps what it needs.
Avoid “temporary forever”
If a redirect has been in place long enough that the original page will not return, switch it to a 301 and remove other contradictory signals (old URLs in sitemap, old canonicals).
Recheck fast
After you deploy changes, re-run the same small URL list and confirm:
Old URL returns the intended code (301 or 302)
Exactly one redirect hop (where possible)
Final URL returns 200
Final URL self-canonicalizes
If you have access to logs, spot-check bot traffic to confirm Googlebot is hitting the final URLs more often over time.
Make it repeatable
Redirect problems return because URL changes are normal:
CMS slug edits
Category restructures
Product retirement
Localization changes
HTTPS, www, trailing slash normalization
The simplest sustainable cadence is:
Run a small website redirect checker audit monthly on your top landing pages and recently changed URLs.
Run a deeper crawl after migrations or major template changes.
If you’re scaling content production, pair that cadence with an automated publishing workflow so URL, internal links, and canonical signals stay consistent as the site grows.
If you want to scale SEO publishing without manual effort, you can try BlogSEO (3-day free trial) or book a demo to see how automation can keep your content engine moving while you focus on technical hygiene like redirects.
