Do 301 redirects and canonical tags pass link equity?
Yes. Google treats a permanent redirect and a rel=canonical tag as strong signals that consolidate links onto the target URL, and Google's Gary Illyes is reported to have said in 2016 that 30x redirects no longer lose PageRank. A redirect to an unrelated page can pass nothing.
In short
- Google's Gary Illyes is reported by Search Engine Land to have said in July 2016 that 30x redirects no longer lose PageRank.
- Google's canonicalisation documentation, updated in July 2026, calls both redirects and rel=canonical strong signals and says canonicalisation consolidates signals such as links onto one preferred URL.
- Google's site move documentation, updated in August 2026, says Googlebot follows up to 10 redirect hops but advises no more than 3 and to keep redirects for generally at least one year.
- A redirect to an unrelated page, such as every old URL to the homepage, is reported to be treated by Google as a soft 404 that passes no link value.
- No independent study measures what share of link value survives a redirect, so "100%" is Google's statement and not a tested figure.
Yes, both pass link equity, by Google’s own account. A permanent redirect and a rel="canonical" tag are each described in Google’s documentation as a strong signal that the target URL should become the canonical one, and canonicalisation is how Google consolidates links from several URLs onto one. Gary Illyes of Google is reported by Search Engine Land to have said in July 2016 that “30x redirects don’t lose PageRank anymore”.
How much passes is less certain than that sounds. Google’s position is that nothing is lost. No independent study has measured it, and one condition overrides everything: the target has to be a real replacement for the source.
What Google’s documentation says
Three Google Search Central pages cover this, and we read each of them for this lesson.
The redirects page, updated in April 2026, splits redirects into permanent and temporary. A permanent redirect shows the new target in search results. A temporary redirect keeps showing the source page. HTTP 301 and 308 are permanent. HTTP 302, 303 and 307 are temporary.
The canonicalisation page, updated in July 2026, ranks the methods by how strongly they influence the choice of canonical URL: redirects first, rel="canonical" second, sitemap inclusion third and weakest. It says canonicalisation helps search engines “consolidate the signals they have for the individual URLs (such as links to them) into a single, preferred URL”.
The site move page, updated in August 2026, recommends server-side permanent redirects, advises against chains and says to keep redirects “for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year”.
Each method compared
| Method | What Google says it does | Effect on link signals |
|---|---|---|
| 301 or 308 redirect | Permanent. The target replaces the source in results | Strong signal. Links consolidate onto the target |
| 302, 303 or 307 redirect | Temporary. The source stays in results | Links stay credited to the source while Google treats the move as temporary |
| Instant meta refresh | Interpreted as a permanent redirect | As a permanent redirect, but use only if a server-side redirect is not possible |
| Delayed meta refresh | Interpreted as a temporary redirect | As a temporary redirect |
| JavaScript redirect | Last resort, because rendering can fail | Unreliable |
rel="canonical" |
Strong signal that the named URL should be canonical | Links consolidate onto the canonical if Google accepts it |
| Sitemap inclusion | Weak signal | Little on its own |
| 404 or 410 | The page is gone | Links to it count for nothing until the URL is restored or redirected |
The middle column summarises Google’s documentation. The right-hand column is our reading of what that means for links, not Google’s wording.
One practical note on temporary redirects. A 302 left in place for a long time is widely reported to end up treated as permanent. That is observed behaviour, not a documented promise, so do not rely on it. If the move is permanent, send a permanent status code.
How much equity passes
Before 2016 the common belief was that a redirect lost a slice of PageRank, about the same as an ordinary link. Illyes’s reported 2016 statement ended that as Google’s official position.
Be clear about what kind of claim it is. It is a statement from Google, not a measurement. No independent study isolates the share of link value that survives a redirect, and the weights are not in any leaked or court document. The 2024 Content Warehouse leak does contain a field for the URL after redirects and redirect chain tracking on anchors, according to Hobo’s 2024 analysis, which shows Google records the path a link takes. It does not show a discount.
The sound working assumption is that a clean, relevant, single-hop permanent redirect preserves the value of a link, and that everything that makes a redirect less clean puts that at risk.
The relevance condition
A redirect only passes value if the target replaces the source. Google’s John Mueller is reported to have said that redirecting many pages to an irrelevant target, typically the homepage, can be treated as a soft 404. A soft 404 is a page Google treats as missing, and links to a missing page pass nothing.
This has three consequences.
- Map page to page. An old product page should redirect to the same product or its closest successor, not to the homepage.
- Do not redirect to an unrelated topic. The anchor text and context of the inherited links will not match the target.
- Bought domains are the weak case. Pointing a dropped domain at a money page depends on exactly the kind of redirect Google is least likely to honour, and Google’s spam policies have named expired domain abuse since March 2024. Our page on expired domains and 301s covers that tactic and its risks.
Chains and how long to keep redirects
Google’s site move documentation says Googlebot can follow up to 10 hops in a chain, and advises redirecting straight to the final destination. If that is not possible, it says to keep the chain low, “ideally no more than 3 and fewer than 5”.
On duration, the same page says generally at least one year. In practice, keep any redirect that still has external links pointing at the old URL for as long as you control the domain. If the redirect is removed, the old URL returns an error and the links behind it stop counting. A full domain change raises its own questions, which changing domain without losing your backlinks answers.
Canonical tags in detail
A canonical tag tells Google which of several similar URLs you want indexed. It suits cases where both URLs must stay reachable: tracking parameters, filtered category pages, print versions, syndicated copies.
Three limits matter for link equity.
- It is a signal, not a command. Google’s documentation says using two or more methods together raises the chance that your preferred URL is chosen. If your internal links, sitemap and redirects point elsewhere, Google may ignore the tag.
- The pages should be near duplicates. A canonical from one page to a different page is a request Google is likely to decline.
- Do not use the wrong tool. The documentation says not to use robots.txt or the URL removal tool for canonicalisation, and it does not recommend noindex for this purpose. A blocked page cannot pass its signals on. John Mueller is also reported to have said that a page left on noindex for a long time is eventually treated as if its links were nofollowed too.
Where link equity gets lost in practice
Most loss comes from mistakes, not from the redirect itself.
- A backlinked URL returns a 404 after a redesign.
- Old redirects are dropped when a server or CMS is replaced.
- A chain grows by one hop with each migration.
- HTTP and HTTPS, or www and non-www, versions are not consolidated.
- A canonical tag points to a URL that itself redirects or is set to noindex.
Finding and fixing these is the core of link reclamation. A crawl of your most linked URLs, from any product in the backlink tools comparison, will show which ones no longer return a 200 status or a single clean redirect. When you buy or earn a link, make sure it points at the final URL, a check covered in how to write a placement brief.
Where to go next
For how redirects sit among the other link signals, read how search engines evaluate links. If links come and go in your profile, how to track backlinks explains what to monitor. Link equity, soft 404 and canonical are defined in the glossary.
Common questions
Does a 301 redirect pass link equity?
Yes, according to Google. Gary Illyes is reported to have said in 2016 that 30x redirects no longer lose PageRank. The condition is that the new page is a close match for the old one.
How much link equity does a 301 redirect pass?
Google's stated position is that nothing is lost. No independent study confirms an exact percentage, and the older belief that every redirect loses some PageRank has no current source behind it.
Is a 302 redirect bad for SEO?
Not in itself. Google's documentation says a temporary redirect keeps the source page in search results. Use it only when the move really is temporary, and use a 301 or 308 for permanent changes.
Does a canonical tag pass link equity like a redirect?
It consolidates link signals onto the canonical URL when Google accepts it. The difference is that visitors still see the original page, and Google may pick a different canonical if other signals disagree.
How long should I keep a redirect in place?
Google's site move documentation says to keep redirects for as long as possible, generally at least one year. If other sites still link to the old URL, keep it permanently.
