Every redirect carries a status code, and the two you'll use almost always are 301 (permanent) and 302 (temporary). The difference is one word, but it changes how browsers cache the link and how search engines treat the destination.
301 — "this moved for good"
- Tells search engines to consolidate the old URL's ranking signals into the new one.
- Browsers are allowed to cache it aggressively — a visitor may not hit your server again for that link.
- Right for: rebrands, retired pages, merged sites, permanent short links on your brand.
302 — "this moved for now"
- Tells everyone the change is temporary: the old URL keeps its own identity.
- Browsers re-check the link instead of caching forever.
- Right for: campaigns and seasonal promos, A/B tests, maintenance detours, rotating offers behind one printed link.
Rules of thumb
- Not sure? Use 302. It's the reversible choice. You can promote a link to 301 later once you're sure it's permanent.
- Don't 301 an experiment. A cached permanent redirect is hard to walk back for visitors who already stored it.
- Paused beats deleted. If a link needs to stop working temporarily, pause it — the URL and its history stay intact.
Switching in urlpath.cloud
Every redirect in the dashboard has a 301/302 switch you can flip at any time — the change applies immediately, no DNS or certificate work involved. Combined with schedules (go live and expire automatically) and A/B splits for testing destinations, you can run a link's whole lifecycle — temporary first, permanent when you're sure — without ever breaking the URL you already handed out.