The Status Code Mistake Most Shorteners Make
When you shorten a link, the status code in the HTTP Location header decides everything. It tells Googlebot how to index your page. It tells Chrome whether to cache the redirect forever. And it tells API clients whether to preserve form data.
Most link shorteners still use HTTP 301 or HTTP 302. Both cause subtle, expensive bugs in production.
The Problem with HTTP 301 Permanent Redirects
HTTP 301 tells the browser that the target address will never change again. Ever.
When Chrome or Safari sees a 301, it saves the redirect to local disk cache. The browser will never check your server again.
Here is what happens in real life:
You lost the customer. Even worse, your dashboard shows zero clicks for Saturday because the request never reached your edge node.
Client Click -> Local Disk Cache (301 Hit) -> Old Expired Page (Your server was never queried)
Why HTTP 302 Breaks Forms and Webhooks
RFC 1945 originally defined HTTP 302 as a temporary redirect. Web browsers, however, implemented it incorrectly.
When an old browser gets a 302 response to an HTTP POST request, it automatically converts the next request to a GET. It drops the request body completely.
If you route webhook events, checkout forms, or API payloads through a 302 redirect, the payload disappears.
RFC 7231 created HTTP 307 to fix this bug once and for all:
"The 307 status code indicates that the target resource resides temporarily under a different URI and the user agent MUST NOT change the request method."
A POST stays a POST. Form data remains intact. Webhooks work reliably.
How Google Handles HTTP 307 for SEO
Googlebot treats HTTP 307 redirects with precision:
HTTP/1.1 307 Temporary Redirect Location: https://example.com/target-destination Cache-Control: private, no-transform, max-age=60 X-Edge-Routing: tlink-stateless-v2
At TLink, every redirect runs through strict HTTP 307 handlers. Your links stay editable, your payloads stay intact, and your SEO ranking stays clean.