How to correctly set up 301 redirects to avoid SEO loss caused by content merging?

When merging duplicate content or migrating pages, correctly setting up 301 redirects is a crucial step to avoid losing SEO authority. This is typically achieved through server configurations, such as Apache's .htaccess file or Nginx's server block, ensuring that old URLs permanently point to a single new URL to prevent authority dilution caused by linking to multiple target pages. In content merging scenarios, prioritize retaining the authoritative version as the target page and avoid redirecting pages with different topics to the same URL. Additionally, ensure redirect chains are short, limiting multiple hops (ideally no more than 2) to reduce crawling and authority transfer losses. After setup, update all internal links pointing to the old URLs on the site, verify redirect status using tools like Google Search Console, and continuously monitor the indexing status and ranking changes of new pages to promptly identify and fix potential issues.