How To Do a 301 or 302 Redirect for Websites

A redirect allows you to make one website redirect to another website. For example, when mydomainA.com is accessed through a browser, you will automatically be routed to the website content for mydomainB.com. You can choose a 301 permanent redirect or a 302 temporary redirect.

What Is a 301 Redirect

A 301 Redirect is also known as a Permanent Redirect.

If you've relocated your website to a new address and want to direct your visitors to the new domain name, you should set up a 301 Redirect. This type of redirect signifies a permanent redirection from your old domain (point A) to the new one (point B). It's important because it informs search engines like Google about the change, ensuring they transfer ranking and value signals to the new URL. This way, your website's content will be correctly indexed under its new permanent home.

What Is a 302 Redirect

A 302 Redirect is also known as a Temporary Redirect.

When conducting significant maintenance or applying upgrades to your website and you need to temporarily redirect your visitors to another site, a 302 Redirect is the solution. This ensures visitors don't encounter error pages while your main website is undergoing maintenance. Search engines recognize this as a temporary redirection, keeping the original page's value without transferring the indexing to the redirected URL.

NOTE: This guide is for Linux web hosting customers who use cPanel as their hosting manager. If you have Windows web hosting with Plesk as your hosting manager, click here for instructions on how to create a 301/302 redirect for your website.

Creating a 301 or 302 Redirect in cPanel

Follow these steps on how to create a 301/302 Redirect through the cPanel hosting manager:

1. Log in to your cPanel.
2. Scroll down to the Domains section, click the [ v ] arrow symbol, and then click the Redirects icon.
   
   
   
    
3. Under Type, choose between Permanent (301) or Temporary (302) from the drop-down menu.
   
   
   
    
   • A 301 Redirect is a permanent redirect. Major search engines recommend this option as it protects your brand, especially if you register domain names that are similar to yours. You can redirect them to your site to prevent cybersquatting.
   • A 302 Redirect is a temporary redirect. This is used when you want to temporarily redirect your page to another one. This option is ideal if you want to show your users and search engines that a page will be returning.
   
    
4. Complete the following fields:
   
   
    

   https?://(www.)?	Select the Domain or URL you wish to redirect to another URL.
   /	Add Path if necessary.
   Redirects to	Add the new URL you would like your old one to be redirected to.

   
    
5. Click the Add button.

Congratulations! You have just created a redirect to a website.