301 or 302 redirect: Which one is better to use?

Redirects are a simple thing. If you're moving content to a new location permanently, use 301 redirects. If the move is temporary, use a 302 redirect.

But you may ask, what's the difference? Well, users won't notice the difference between 301 and 302 redirects. Both work the same way.

The answer is simple: search engines consider 301 and 302 redirects differently. And if you choose the wrong one, it can create SEO problems that can go unnoticed for months or even years.

When to use a 301 redirect

You're permanently changing the URL of a page.

You're permanently moving to a new domain.

You're moving from HTTP to HTTPS.

You want to fix the duplicate content problem on the non-www and www versions.

You are permanently gluing two or more pages or sites together.

You are permanently changing the URL structure on a site.

When to use a 302 redirect

There are far fewer situations for using 302 redirects, but there are some:

You want to redirect users to the correct version of the site for them (based on location or language).

You want to run an A/B split test of a page's design or functionality.

You want to get feedback on a new page without hurting the position of the old one.

You're running a promotional campaign and want to temporarily redirect users to an offer page.

Undoubtedly, there are other examples, but most often they are too specific and require a customised solution. As a rule of thumb, 302 redirects should only be used if you plan to bring back the old page after a short period of time.

How Google takes 301 and 302 redirects into account

Since 301 and 302 redirects work the same way for the end user, the choice comes down to how Google treats them. Therefore, we need to cover two things:

Indexing

Link Signals

Link Signals

3XX redirects used to lose PageRank, but as of 2016 this is no longer the case.

Now, when you redirect one URL to another, link signals are consolidated without loss. Despite this, people often don't fully understand how this works and how the type of redirect can affect the signalling.

For 301 redirects ...

... link signals are consolidated "forward" to the new URL.

For example, if the old page old-page.html had ten links and you redirect it (301) to the new page new-page.html, all link signals are consolidated and carried forward to the new page new-page.html. In other words, Google should rank the new page new-page.html as if it had 10 links.

Despite this, it's not that simple. That's because incorrect redirects are counted by Google as soft 404 errors

This isn't a problem if you're moving content to a new URL without major changes. But if the redirect is irrelevant, as in the case of redirecting an old blog post to the homepage, links to the "old" page won't help the "new" page rank better. So it's best to make redirects as relevant as possible.

For 302 redirects ...

... link signals are consolidated "back" to the "old" URL.

For example, if you redirect (302) an old page old-page.html to a new page new-page.html, and the new page new-page.html has ten links, the link signals will consolidate back to the old page old-page.html. In other words, Google will rank the old page old-page.html as if it had ten links.

But it's not that simple. It all depends on how Google treats this 302 redirect.

If it treats it as temporary, the link signals do consolidate backwards. Provided the redirected page is the same or similar to the "new" page. If not, the redirect may count as a soft 404 error.

If it treats it as permanent, link signals will be counted for the new page.

Do random 302 redirects need to be "fixed"?

Let's say you made a common mistake and set up 302 redirects instead of permanent redirects. Should you waste valuable time and change them to 301 redirects?

The answer depends on how Google accounts for these redirects at this point.

If it has sorted itself out and realised that random 302s need to be replaced with permanent ones, then changing 302s to 301 redirects won't change much. If he hasn't figured it out yet, it's probably better to change the redirects.

Conclusion

Redirects aren't complicated. If you're moving content to a new location permanently, use 301 redirects. If it's temporary, use a 302.