What is a 301 Redirect?
A 301 redirect is a permanent HTTP status code indicating that a webpage has been permanently moved to a new location. When search engines like Google encounter a 301 redirect, they pass the ranking power (link equity) from the old URL to the new URL, ensuring you don’t lose your hard-earned SEO traffic.
Why Do You Need Bulk Redirects?
When migrating a website, changing domain names, or restructuring your URL permalinks, you often have hundreds or thousands of URLs that need redirecting. Writing Apache .htaccess or Nginx rewrite rules manually is extremely prone to syntax errors. A single missing slash or incorrect regex flag can crash your entire server (causing a 500 Internal Server Error).
How to use the generator
- Make a list of every old URL and the new page it should go to. A spreadsheet export of your old sitemap is a good starting point.
- Enter the pairs in the generator above and pick the rule format that matches your web server.
- Copy the rules into your server config, test a few old URLs in a private browser window, and check that each returns a single 301 hop to the right page.
301 vs 302 vs 410
- 301 (permanent): the page has moved for good. Search engines replace the old URL with the new one.
- 302 / 307 (temporary): the move is short-term, such as a sale page or maintenance. Search engines keep the old URL.
- 410 (gone): the page was deleted on purpose and has no replacement.
Redirect best practices
- Redirect each old URL to the most relevant new page, not everything to the homepage. Mass homepage redirects are often treated like “page not found”.
- Avoid chains (A → B → C). Point every old URL straight to its final destination.
- Update internal links to the new URLs, so visitors and crawlers don’t need the redirect at all.
- On WordPress, an SEO plugin’s redirection manager (for example Rank Math → Redirections) is an alternative to editing server files.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I keep 301 redirects active?
Google advises keeping redirects in place for at least a year. After a domain move, many sites keep them indefinitely so old backlinks and bookmarks keep working.
Do 301 redirects lose SEO value?
Google has said that 301 and other server-side redirects do not lose PageRank. Ranking can still fluctuate for a while after a large migration while the new URLs are recrawled.
