title: 301 Redirect vs DNS change: Is it ever safe to kill a 301 redirect and update the DNS for a subdomain?
body: <p>I have a site running at a subdomain that has been migrated to a new server and new domain name.  To preserve search credits I know a 301 redirect is the proper way to handle migrating the transition.  (The marketing department speaks of 301 redirects like I've never heard of.)  </p>
  
  <p>From a technical standpoint, I don't understand how long you have to maintain a redirect.  Can someone explain this? It seems like extra and unnecessary load on a server to keep a redirect running indefinitely.  Do you eventually drop it or make it a DNS change after the search engines have stopped linking to the previous site?</p>