After observing 301, inspect Location, the rest of the chain, the final response, and whether the destination actually replaces the source.
The status has a defined meaning
RFC 9110 defines 301 Moved Permanently as a redirect indicating that the target resource has been assigned a new permanent URI. Google currently describes 301 and 308 as permanent redirect signals for Search.
That is enough to classify the observed response as a stated permanent move. It does not fill in any missing evidence about the destination.
Five questions remain
- Did Location resolve to the intended URL?
- Did another hop change the destination or permanence?
- Did the final URL return a usable response and representation?
- Does the final page satisfy the same user job as the source?
- Do canonical and robots signals agree with the migration intent?
Homepage redirects need the same proof
A blanket redirect can remove 404s from a report while sending visitors to an unrelated page. That is not the same as restoring a resource or consolidating equivalent content.
For retired software downloads or historical pages without a rights-safe successor, an explicit 404 or 410 may describe the state more accurately.