SEO Dictionary

301 Redirect means Moved Permanently - The file has been moved permanently to a new location. This is the preferred method of redirecting for most pages or websites. If you are going to move an entire site to a new location you may want to test moving a file or folder first, and then if that ranks well you may want to proceed with moving the entire site. In order for the 301 redirect to be picked up, depending on your site authority and crawl  it may take anywhere from few days to a month or even more.