How do you implement redirects correctly?

The status code communicates permanence and method handling. A 301 or 302 may be rewritten to GET by some clients, while 307 and 308 preserve the original method and body. That matters for API endpoints.

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/tls/example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/tls/example.com.key;

    location = /pricing {
        return 308 https://example.com/plans;
    }
}

Choosing a code

• 301 permanent: cacheable, common for HTTP to HTTPS and domain migration
• 302 temporary: not meant to be cached long term
• 307 temporary and method-preserving: use for temporary API moves
• 308 permanent and method-preserving: use when the move is permanent
• Avoid redirect chains because each hop adds latency and failure risk