The SEO Guide to 301 vs. 302 Redirects: When to Use Which and How They Differ

Figuring retired the quality betwixt 301 and 302 redirects tin beryllium confusing for SEO specialists. Used right, redirects connection a seamless method for transferring users and hunt engines without harming postulation oregon rankings. However, problems thin to hap erstwhile radical premix up 301 and 302 redirects oregon usage them successful the incorrect situations.

This usher volition explicate successful item what 301 and 302 codes mean, erstwhile to usage each type, and what their cardinal differences are successful presumption of hunt motor attraction and nexus flow. We’ll besides spell implicit immoderate champion practices for finding, monitoring, and fixing redirect issues.

The Differences Between 301 vs. 302 Redirects

Redirects benignant 301 (the astir commonly used) and 302 are 2 of a agelong database of imaginable HTTP presumption codes. 

At their core, 301 and 302 redirects stock akin goals, including rerouting users and hunt motor crawlers from aged URLs to caller locations. 

But determination is one halfway quality between 301 and 302 redirects. The 301 redirect takes visitors to the caller URL and tells hunt engines that the redirect is permanent. A 302 redirect, connected the different hand,  tells hunt engines that the redirect is lone temporary. This means that it volition lone beryllium successful spot for arsenic agelong arsenic you request it to be. The array beneath compares the cardinal differences betwixt 301 and 302 redirects:

What Is a 301 Redirect?

A 301 redirect is an HTTP presumption codification wherever the code of a webpage oregon contented has been permanently changed. It redirects users and hunt engines from an aged URL to a caller destination URL. It’s similar telling hunt engines and browsers, “This leafage present lives permanently astatine a caller address, truthful instrumentality each the nexus equity oregon “juice” that you were attributing to the aged leafage and transportation it to the caller URL instead“

When Should You Use 301 Redirects?

For URL redirects, determination are situations wherever utilizing a 301 (permanent) redirect makes cleanable sense. 

1. Switching from HTTP to HTTPS

When transitioning a website from an insecure HTTP transportation to a unafraid HTTPS connection, 301s should beryllium utilized to guardant postulation from the aged HTTP URLs to the caller HTTPS URLs. This besides sends a beardown ranking awesome to Google, indicating that the HTTPS mentation is the preferred version. This past guarantees due indexing of the caller protocol.

You tin find step-by-step instructions connected however to bash it close successful our guide: Moving from HTTP to HTTPS successful 5 steps. 

2. Changing the URL operation of your website

“Organizing the chaos” perfectly encapsulates wherefore astir radical alteration the URL operation of their website. Reorganizing URLs with amended operation won’t disrupt SEO if you usage 301 redirects properly. For example, changing messy blog URLs similar /blog.php?id=1 to cleaner ones similar /blog/my-first-post/ is the close move. 

All interior links indispensable beryllium updated excessively to forestall visitors and bots from moving into 404 errors.

3. Moving your website to a caller domain

Perhaps 1 of the astir communal cases for 301s are migrating from sitename.com to sitename.net or wholly rebranding domains, similar going from sitename.com to newsitename.com. 

In some cases, utilizing 301 redirects conveys the connection to Google that the website contented has permanently moved to the caller domain location. 

Already migrating your website? Use this guide connected website migration arsenic your go-to resource.

4. Merge 2 oregon much pages into one

When merging pages, usage 301s to merge complementary contented antecedently divided crossed aggregate pages. This helps sphere authorization and signals. But retrieve that random forwarding (redirects) won’t enactment properly. Following an audit of backlinks, keywords, and postulation sources, cautiously analyse the contented to precisely representation redirects betwixt applicable aged and caller pages.

5. Migrate your blog from a subdomain to a subfolder

The logic present is the aforesaid arsenic erstwhile changing the domains. When moving a blog from a subdomain to a subfolder owed to rebranding, restructuring, oregon consolidation, usage 301 redirects. Google views subdomains arsenic abstracted from superior domains. This tin origin your superior domain to miss retired connected contented and backlinks, and truthful suffer rankings and traffic.

6. Want to hole duplicate contented issues (non-www/www, trailing slash, treble slash)

Duplicate contented issues originate erstwhile your website is accessible via some “https://example.com” (non-www) and “https://www.example.com” (www). At immoderate point, you’ll request to determine whether you privation your website to look with oregon without the “www” prefix. Both versions are technically valid. Also, marque definite to grip trailing slash and treble slash issues, arsenic Google volition spot them arsenic antithetic pages. For example, from www.example.com/page to www.example.com/page/, and from example.com//category//product to example.com/category/product.

Using a 301 redirect volition constituent users/search engines to the main preferred domain version. This eliminates duplication by clarifying the canonical URL.

7. Deleting a leafage oregon moving its contented to a caller URL

There are valid reasons to region a page, specified arsenic outdated content, unavailable products, oregon changed services. However, simply deleting a leafage tin wounded your backlink illustration and integrated traffic. Instead of deleting them, usage 301 redirects to supply users with applicable content.

Important reminder: Avoid redirecting each deleted URLs to your homepage. Google treats these kinds of redirects arsenic soft 404s. It ignores them without passing immoderate rankings oregon signals from aged to caller pages. But whether it ignores them oregon not, you should ever acceptable up redirects to the astir applicable pages. For example, if you antecedently merged contented from aggregate pages to a caller one, it’s good to redirect the aged URLs to the caller page.

8. Resolve keyword cannibalization issues

Think of keyword cannibalization arsenic keywords that are competing for attention. It happens erstwhile aggregate pages connected a tract amusement up for the aforesaid searches. This makes it hard for Google to find which pages should fertile higher. 

If you are definite that 2 of your pages are targeting the aforesaid keywords, redirect the pages with less backlinks, little traffic, and lesser rankings to the stronger page. This improves show by consolidating contented powerfulness into 1 authoritative page.

What Is a 302 Redirect?

A 302 redirect signals that a webpage was recovered but has been temporarily moved to a caller URL. 302 redirects let URLs to alteration without sacrificing the archetypal page’s nexus equity, postulation value, authority, oregon keyword rankings. This is due to the fact that Google is alert that this alteration is momentary. 

When Should You Use 302 Redirects?

302 redirects enactment champion for short-term, impermanent usage cases, particularly erstwhile you’re 99.9% definite that the aged leafage volition beryllium restored aft a abbreviated period. Nevertheless, you tin remainder casual erstwhile implementing 302s if you autumn nether 1 of the scenarios below.

1. Testing antithetic webpage features oregon designs with A/B split-testing

302 redirects enactment perfectly for astir each kinds of website experiments. For example, if you’re investigating 2 designs oregon features for a merchandise page, a 302 redirect guides a information of your postulation to each version. This makes it easier to determine which plan is the champion for users.

Once your experiments are done, removing the 302 redirects is simple. You tin either power to a 301 redirect to marque the caller URL imperishable oregon marque nonstop changes to the archetypal page.

2. Getting feedback connected a caller leafage without changing the aged one’s rankings

Let’s accidental you person a blog and are looking for feedback connected a caller article, but you don’t privation it to power the existing article’s hunt motor rankings. In cases similar this, utilizing 302s is simply a harmless move. Unlike imperishable changes, 302 redirects support the archetypal page’s SEO integrity. This allows experts to measure idiosyncratic responses without compromising established rankings.

3. Temporarily sending visitors to a income leafage for a promotion

302 (temporary) redirects enactment for time-limited promotions similar flash income oregon seasonal offers. They easy usher users to impermanent pages without altering the main website’s structure. When the connection expires, you tin rapidly region the promotional leafage and reconstruct the archetypal setup. For instance, if you person a peculiar vacation sale, you tin usage a 302 redirect to showcase the promotional leafage during the merchantability period.

4. Planning website attraction oregon redesign

Ahead of readying a website attraction oregon redesign, see utilizing 302 redirects. Redirecting from existing tract pages to a maintenance/coming soon leafage tin beryllium highly effective. This attack signals that the changes are short-term and assures visitors that improvements are underway. It besides minimizes disruptions to the wide idiosyncratic experience. 

How 301 and 302 Redirects Impact SEO

As we already mentioned, a 301 redirect tells hunt engines that a leafage has permanently moved to a caller URL. Google past consolidates each SEO equity associated with the aged URL and transfers it to the caller people address, passing on nexus signals and ranking power. Googlebot follows the redirect, and the indexing pipeline treats the redirect arsenic a beardown awesome that the redirect people should beryllium canonical. 

Must-knows astir 301 redirects:

• The 301 codification signals to Google that it should dainty the caller URL destination arsenic the authoritative canonical leafage to scale and fertile for applicable searches. 
• When decently acceptable up, hunt engines tin walk nexus equity from an aged URL to a caller one. This retains backlink value. Also, let’s re-emphasize this fact: debar redirecting galore aged URLs to 1 irrelevant destination similar your homepage, arsenic this tin confuse users and origin brushed 404 errors to occur. However, if you consolidate contented from respective aged pages into a azygous caller page, redirecting the aged URLs to the consolidated leafage would beryllium appropriate.
• 301s let visitors coming from outer sites oregon bookmarks to inactive scope the close page, avoiding 404 errors should the leafage beryllium deleted.
• It’s captious to support 301 redirects for astatine slightest a year—the minimum clip recommended by Google. This allows Google capable clip to admit and process the site’s migration. If redirects are progressive for little than a year, Google whitethorn not admit the alteration arsenic permanent.

302 impermanent redirects simply accidental that existent changes are short-term. The impermanent leafage won’t get indexed during an A/B test, (i.e. avoiding duplication and cannibalization). Rankings typically enactment enactment with the archetypal leafage arsenic well.

Here is however 302s interaction SEO:

• The impermanent caller leafage doesn’t get immoderate ranking powerfulness from the archetypal URL until you either cancel the impermanent redirect oregon determine to marque it permanent. 
• Even though Google looks astatine aggregate signals, not conscionable redirect types, to find the canonical page, if a “temporary” 302 sticks astir for excessively long, hunt engines volition usually dainty it arsenic a 301 redirect. To marque definite that this does not happen, acceptable expiration dates for 302s. If you privation it to beryllium permanent, power to a 301 redirect.
• When you instrumentality 302s, Google keeps the aged URL indexed and shows it successful the hunt results unless you permission the 302s successful spot for excessively long. This tin beryllium challenging to measurement precisely due to the fact that it tin instrumentality months, weeks oregon adjacent days.

Troubleshooting Tips for 301 and 302 Redirects

The process of uncovering and fixing redirect issues should ever beryllium a portion of your ongoing SEO strategy. But it isn’t indispensable to walk loads of clip fixing problems erstwhile you could minimize these method issues close from the start. Here are immoderate communal 301 and 302 redirect mistakes to avoid, successful summation to champion practices to follow.

Use the close HTTP presumption codes

Using the close presumption codes makes your signals wide to hunt engines and users. Plus, it improves transparency, tract structure, and wide idiosyncratic experience. But consistently utilizing an inaccurate presumption codification undermines your intentions and tin negatively interaction your SEO. So, guarantee that you acceptable the due HTTP presumption codification (301 oregon 302) successful the redirect response.

To find retired if your redirects are acceptable up correctly, effort our free redirect checker.

Use 301 redirects for imperishable moves

Be cautious astir utilizing 301s. They should lone beryllium utilized erstwhile making large semipermanent URL shifts 301s archer hunt engines similar Google to afloat transportation each SEO powerfulness from the aged URL to the caller one. The aged URL volition yet driblet retired of the index.

Be definite to see the pursuing downsides to 301s arsenic well:

• 301s really tin beryllium reversed, but it’s risky to alteration them backmost without hurting SEO.
• Googlebot whitethorn proceed to temporarily crawl the aged URL earlier afloat switching.

Avoid redirect chains and loops

When implementing redirects, it’s important to debar creating aggregate redirect chains, arsenic good arsenic redirect loops.

A redirect chain happens erstwhile Page A redirects to Page B, which past redirects to Page C, and truthful connected down the line. Lengthy chains degrade idiosyncratic experience, make crawl inefficiencies, and dilatory down leafage loading speeds. Eliminate unnecessary redirects and constituent each pages straight to the last URL. If you can’t bash that, effort not to person excessively galore redirects successful a row—ideally, support it nether 3, but decidedly less than 5.

Redirect loops hap erstwhile a leafage is redirected to itself by mistake oregon erstwhile 2 pages redirect to each different successful a circle. For example, Page A redirects visitors to Page B, portion Page B is besides redirecting users backmost to Page A arsenic the target. This frustrates users and confuses crawlers, risking ranking drops and nexus equity loss. Fix redirect loops and guarantee that redirects pb straight to the astir updated page. Replace links to redirected pages with links to the existent last URL instead.

Don’t alteration the destination URL excessively frequently

When mounting up a redirect, you should minimize however often you alteration wherever that redirect points to. Here are the reasons why:

1. Changing redirect destinations often frustrates users who onshore connected inconsistent pages from aged links. 
2. Search engines whitethorn concisely amusement some redirecting and destination URLs if changes are recurring. 
3. With each change, analytics information is divided among URLs alternatively than merged into cleanable reports.

Update interior links

After implementing redirects, marque definite each interior links connected your website constituent to the caller URLs. To find interior links, spell to the Website Audit, unfastened the Issue Report, click connected the HTTP Status Code, and find each interior links to the pages with 3xx redirects.

Moreover, you tin ever complement your wide website optimization strategy by getting adjuvant recommendations from our On-Page SEO Checker. This instrumentality tin assistance you audit circumstantial pages separately and place X much issues that whitethorn beryllium preventing your pages from reaching the top.

How to Monitor 301 and 302 Redirects connected Your Website

There are galore approaches to tracking 301 and 302 redirects connected your website. Using the Page Indexing report successful Google Search Console is 1 specified approach. This escaped instrumentality volition assistance you way the show of your redirects implicit time.

Here’s however to bash it: 

• Log successful to Google Search Console and take the website you privation to monitor. Scroll down to find the Indexing tab and take Pages.

• Find Why pages aren’t indexed table, which highlights problems that prevented immoderate pages from being indexed. Click a enactment for details. See which URLs had issues and however agelong the occupation occurred connected your site. 
• If a URL has a  “Page with redirect” status, it means that it leads to different page, preventing indexing. So, it volition not get indexed. But a URL that redirects tin inactive beryllium indexed if it is the canonical version. When you cheque this URL successful the URL Inspection report, absorption connected the indexed accusation for the tested URL, ignoring immoderate redirects. To cheque the scale presumption of the associated canonical URL, click INSPECT nether Page indexing > Indexing conception successful the report.
• A “Redirect error” alerts astir issues similar a agelong redirect chain, a loop, an excessively agelong redirect URL, oregon a bad/empty URL successful the chain.
• To cheque the redirect type, you tin filter retired circumstantial crawl stats for each leafage by the response. Scroll down to Settings and cheque however galore pages are moved permanently (301) and temporarily (302), and place those with redirect errors.

To drawback redirect problems earlier hunt engines do, usage SE Ranking’s Site Audit tool. It provides you with a implicit database of redirected pages and reveals much important SEO issues. It besides helps you find redirect mistakes and show them to guarantee they execute correctly implicit time.

Here’s however to bash it: 

• As you scroll done the audit report, spell to the Issue Report tab successful the near sidebar nether Website Audit. Click connected the HTTP Status Code, and find each groups of issues with 3XX redirects.
• Click connected a circumstantial radical of 3XX issues to grow the associated URLs and pages containing the errors.

• To observe redirect chains and loops, cheque the Redirects section.

• Expand these issues to place circumstantial pages containing them, and spot different important parameters like:
  • Referring domains 
  • Status code
  • Meta refresh redirects 
  • Refresh redirect time 
  • Number of redirects 
  • Redirect people URLs
  • Redirect inlinks

• For speedy assistance with 3XX issues, cheque the tool’s tips. For instance: “Make definite 3XX pages are little than 5% of the total. If it’s supra 10%, region immoderate redirects close away”.

• Filter your hunt by Errors (urgent fixes), Warnings (second precedence issues), Notices (issues you request to beryllium alert of) to constrictive your absorption to the astir pressing contented close now. After the fixes are done, conscionable click connected the Reset enactment to corroborate that these errors person already been resolved.

• You tin besides cheque your pages for imaginable contented duplication issues. Go to the Issue Report tab and pat connected Duplicate Content to corroborate that determination are nary specified issues and that the 301 redirects are acceptable up correctly. If immoderate issues are found, it’s advisable to acceptable up redirects.

By the way, if you’re not an SE Ranking idiosyncratic yet, effort retired each the features for yourself. Make definite to repetition the steps above. 

One much technically precocious mode to find and way impermanent vs. imperishable redirects is to execute a log record analysis. This provides earthy HTTP presumption codification information that tin supplement different methods.

The Bottom Line of 302 vs. 301 Redirects: Which is Better for SEO?

Our verdict? The prime betwixt 301 vs. 302 redirects strictly depends connected your circumstantial extremity and needs. Neither is needfully much preferable to the other. Each idiosyncratic usage lawsuit dictates which is the champion fit.

To recap:

• 301 redirects sends a wide signal that the aged leafage is permanently unopen down and that the caller leafage should look successful search.
• 302s give a little wide signal and enactment arsenic impermanent detours; the archetypal leafage whitethorn inactive beryllium recovered successful hunt results.

As agelong arsenic your method of redirection is aligned with the changes needed, its interaction connected SEO should beryllium minimal. Just regularly cheque that your redirects are correctly configured and stay truthful implicit time.

Haven’t done immoderate redirect checks successful a while? Mark this task adjacent connected your to-do list!