308 vs 301

Permanent Redirect vs Moved Permanently

🏠308Permanent Redirect

📦301Moved Permanently

Redirect Codes: Permanent vs Temporary

Understanding the key differences between redirect types

Permanent Redirects

📦

301

Moved Permanently

Old-Style Permanent

Classic redirect

Resource has permanently moved. Browsers and search engines will update their bookmarks and indexes.

🌐POST /old-url

Server responds with new location

↓

📦301 → /new-url

⚠️ May change to GET

Key behavior:

Browser caches the redirect
SEO: Link juice transferred
⚠️ May change POST to GET

📍

🔒

308

Permanent Redirect

Modern Permanent

Method-preserving

Like 301, but guarantees the HTTP method and body won't change during redirect.

🌐POST /old-url

Server responds with new location

↓

🔒308 → /new-url

✓ Keeps POST method

Key behavior:

Browser caches the redirect
SEO: Link juice transferred
✓ Preserves HTTP method

🔐

Temporary Redirects

🔄

302

Found

Old-Style Temporary

Classic temporary

Resource is temporarily at another location. Original URL should still be used in the future.

🌐POST /temp-moved

Server responds with temp location

↓

🔄302 → /temp-url

⚠️ May change to GET

Key behavior:

No browser caching
SEO: Original URL preserved
⚠️ May change POST to GET

⏱️

🔃

307

Temporary Redirect

Modern Temporary

Method-preserving

Like 302, but guarantees the HTTP method and body won't change during redirect.

🌐POST /temp-moved

Server responds with temp location

↓

🔃307 → /temp-url

✓ Keeps POST method

Key behavior:

No browser caching
SEO: Original URL preserved
✓ Preserves HTTP method

🔄

Quick Decision Guide

Use Permanent (301/308) when:

URL has changed forever
You want search engines to update their index
Domain migration or restructuring
Old URL should never be used again

Use Temporary (302/307) when:

Resource is temporarily unavailable
A/B testing or maintenance mode
You want to keep the original URL active
Redirect might change or be removed soon

Use Modern (307/308) when:

Redirecting POST/PUT/DELETE requests
Request body must be preserved
Working with REST APIs
Modern application with strict HTTP semantics

💡

Key Insight

Permanent vs Temporary controls caching and SEO, while Old vs Modern controls HTTP method preservation. For APIs and POST requests, prefer 307/308. For simple page redirects, 301/302 are widely supported and sufficient.

	🏠 308	📦 301
Name	Permanent Redirect	Moved Permanently
Category	3xxRedirection	3xxRedirection
Description	The resource has permanently moved to another URI, specified in the Location header. Method and body unchanged.	The URL of the requested resource has been changed permanently. The new URL is given in the response.
When to Use	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	The resource URL has changed permanently and will never return You want search engines to update their index to the new URL Consolidating multiple URLs to a canonical URL for SEO
Common Causes	API endpoint permanently moved Maintaining POST method during redirect Permanent URL restructuring	Website restructured with new URLs Domain name changed Page permanently relocated