Glossary · Étiqueter et diffuser

301 and 302 redirects

A redirect is a server's answer sending the browser to another address; code 301 declares it permanent, code 302 declares it temporary. The difference is not cosmetic: it decides whether the browser will come back through you next time.

Dire d’où vient un clic avant qu’il ne soit trop tard pour le savoir. The forty terms of the trade

What it is for

The choice of code decides the measurement. A 301 lets the browser keep the destination in memory and go straight there afterwards — the second click no longer passes through the link, and is not counted. A 302 forces it back through every time, and therefore counts every time.

How the choice is made

A tracking link is served as a 302, without exception. A 301 suits a permanent page move, where you actually want browsers and search engines to stop coming back. On a link you measure, that is precisely what you do not want.

The classic mistake

Serving a campaign link as a 301 to “make it faster”. Clicks drop in the report with nothing having changed on the publishing side, and the cause is almost impossible to find: the browser simply stopped asking.

Slug

Two codes, two behaviours

301

Permanent. The browser remembers and stops returning. The next click is not counted.

302

Temporary. The browser asks again every time. Every click is counted.

On a link you measure, there is no debate: 302.

What is really counted, and what is not

What Subtraq does with it

All of Subtraq's redirects answer with a 302, at the network edge. And if an account's click quota is exceeded, the redirect continues: it is the counting that stops, never the link.