The 301 status code means permanent, which is the signal that tells search engines to replace the old URL with the new one in their index and to transfer the link equity pointing at it. A 302 means temporary and is for cases where the original will return. Redirects should be implemented at the server or platform level and should point directly to the final destination, since chains of redirects slow pages down and long chains can lose signals. Redirecting to an unrelated page is treated as a soft error and usually wastes whatever authority the old page had.
Any site rebuild or domain change lives or dies on this. If you launch a new site with different URL structures and do not map the old addresses to their closest new equivalents, every ranking and every existing link lands on a 404 and your traffic falls off a cliff. Before launch, export the full list of old URLs, map each one to its best match, and test the redirects after going live. The same applies when you consolidate duplicate pages: retire the loser and 301 it to the page you kept.
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