301 vs 308 redirects: the difference and which to use

Two are permanent, two are temporary; the pairs differ by method handling.

Google's documentation on redirects groups 301 and 308 together as permanent server-side redirects that are a strong signal that the target should be canonical. It also treats instant meta refresh redirects as permanent. You do not need to convert 308s to 301s for SEO. serionflow.com's retired URLs return 308 from Vercel's permanent redirects, and Google consolidates them like any 301.

The distinction matters when something other than a simple page view follows the redirect. If a form posts to an old URL that 301-redirects, a browser may resend the request as a GET without the form body, and the submission is lost. A 308 tells the browser to repeat the POST to the new URL. The same applies to API clients. For moved API endpoints and form targets, use 308, or 307 if the move is temporary.

On Vercel, entries in vercel.json redirects with permanent set to true return 308, and false returns 307; a statusCode field can set 301 or 302 explicitly. Next.js redirects follow the same pattern. On Nginx, return 301 or return 308 with the target. On Apache, Redirect 301 or Redirect 308, or RewriteRule with the R=301 or R=308 flag. Most CMS redirect managers issue 301 by default.

Use your browser's network panel or a command-line request to see the status code and Location header. Confirm the redirect goes straight to the final URL without chains. Update internal links and sitemaps to the destination. Our free broken link checker reports the status code for every link on a page, which makes 301s, 308s, and chains easy to spot. SerionFlow is the wrong tool for configuring redirects on your server or CMS.