Google Explains How Redirects Move Ranking Signals, and When They Don't

One of the oldest questions in technical SEO finally has a fresh, direct answer from Google. Search Engine Journal reported on November 5, 2026 that Google's Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin discussed how permanent and temporary redirects affect canonicalization and ranking signals. The core of it is simple: a 301 permanent redirect transfers ranking signals from the old URL to the new one, and a 302 temporary redirect does not. Around that simple rule sits a set of details about indexing, canonicals, and URL clustering that every site owner doing a migration should understand.

301 versus 302

A 301 redirect tells the crawler that a change in URL is permanent and that the search index should be updated with the new URL. Google takes all the ranking signals of the old page and hands them to the new page, which then becomes the canonical. A 302 redirect tells the crawler that the URL change is temporary and that the old URL will eventually be restored. Google assumes you are going back eventually, keeps the old URL in the search results, and basically ignores the new URL. That is the practical difference in one sentence: a 301 moves the value, a 302 parks it.

Prommawin added a point that surprises many site owners: regardless of which redirect is used, the page is still going to be indexed by Google. A redirect does not prevent indexing. What changes is which URL Google treats as the home of the content and its signals. That is why a long-running 302 can quietly drain a migration: the new URL exists and is indexed, but the signals stay attached to the old one, and the new page never inherits the authority the move was supposed to transfer.

Canonicalization and URL clustering

Illyes and Prommawin also explained URL clustering and canonicalization, the process by which Google groups duplicate or near-duplicate URLs and picks one to show. Both 301 and 302 redirects work for clustering, but a permanent 301 is the recommended choice for identifying the canonical URL. The distinction matters because clustering is about grouping, while canonicalization is about choosing. A redirect can help Google group the URLs correctly, but only a 301 clearly tells it which one should win.

Google also recommends using server-side redirects like 301s and 302s rather than the old meta refresh or JavaScript redirects. Server-side redirects are unambiguous, fast, and understood by every crawler. Meta refreshes and JavaScript redirects are slower, less reliable, and more likely to be misread, which is the last thing a migration needs.

What this means for migrations and link builders

For anyone planning a site move, a redesign, or a URL cleanup, the guidance translates into a short checklist. Use 301s for every permanent change, and audit for accidental 302s before launch, because a 302 left in place for months is a slow leak of ranking signals. Keep redirects in place for as long as possible, generally at least a year, so Google has time to transfer all signals and to recrawl and reassign links from other sites that still point to the old URLs. And keep the canonical signals consistent: the redirect, the canonical tag, the internal links, and the sitemap should all point at the same preferred URL.

For link builders, the redirect story is a reminder to check where links actually land. A link to an old URL that 301s to the new page still passes value, but a link to a URL that 302s, chains through several hops, or lands on an irrelevant page does not do the job it was earned for. When outreach wins a placement, verify the final destination. And when auditing a site's backlink profile, treat redirect chains as a repair list, because every unnecessary hop is a small tax on the value of the link.

Sources

Sources: Search Engine Journal, November 5, 2026.