308 Permanent Redirect

308

Permanent Redirect

→

Example HTTP Response

HTTP Response

HTTP/1.1 308 Permanent Redirect
Location: /new-permanent-endpoint

Common Causes

API endpoint permanently moved
Maintaining POST method during redirect
Permanent URL restructuring

Technical Details

What does this mean?

Permanent new address, same attitude! The resource moved forever but you can keep doing your thing the same way.

Technical Definition

The resource has permanently moved to another URI, specified in the Location header. Method and body unchanged.

View RFC Documentation

Code Snippets

Ready-to-use code for returning this HTTP status in your application:

Node.js

// Express.js
app.get('/example', (req, res) => {
  res.status(308).json({
    error: 'Permanent Redirect',
    message: 'Your error message here'
  });
});

// Native HTTP
const http = require('http');

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(308, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' });
  res.end(JSON.stringify({
    error: 'Permanent Redirect',
    message: 'Your error message here'
  }));
}).listen(3000);

When to Use This Code

Permanent redirect that must preserve the HTTP method (POST stays POST)
API endpoints that have moved permanently
Preferred over 301 when method preservation is critical
Clients should update their references to use the new URL

SEO Handling

Indexing

Like 301, the old URL is de-indexed and replaced by the new URL. Google passes ranking signals to the destination.

Crawler Behavior

Crawlers follow the redirect and eventually stop crawling the old URL. Behavior is identical to 301 for SEO.

Canonical URL Notes

308 is a strong canonical signal, identical to 301. The destination URL becomes canonical in Google's index.

Google Notes

Google treats 308 the same as 301 for indexing. The method preservation feature is irrelevant since crawlers use GET.

Google Search Documentation →

From the Blog

Understanding HTTP 308 Permanent Redirect: Method-Preserving Redirects Done Right
How 308 Permanent Redirect differs from 301, why it preserves the HTTP method, the full 301/302/303/307/308 matrix, framework gotchas (including Next.js), caching, and SEO.
8 min read

Related Status Codes

📦301Moved Permanently 🔀302Found ↪️307Temporary Redirect

Commonly Confused With

📦301Moved Permanently