302 Temporary Redirect

However, while they are easier to implement, 302 redirects are generally a poor choice for Search Engine Optimization because search engine bots treat the redirect as temporary. As a result, 302 redirects cause pages to lose all ranking power of the original site. For SEO purposes, the better choice are 301 redirects as they retain most of the original ranking power.

The target resource resides temporarily under a different URI. Since the redirection might be altered on occasion, the client ought to continue to use the effective request URI for future requests.

302 CODE REFERENCES

Rails HTTP Status Symbol :found

Go HTTP Status Constant http.StatusFound

Symfony HTTP Status Constant Response::HTTP_FOUND

Python2 HTTP Status Constant httplib.FOUND

Python3+ HTTP Status Constant http.client.FOUND

Python3.5+ HTTP Status Constant http.HTTPStatus.FOUND

Apache HttpComponents Core org.apache.hc.core5.http.HttpStatus.SC_MOVED_TEMPORARILY

302 status code example

Here is an example of a 302 status code:

Request

GET /example HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com

Response

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://www.example.com/new-location

This response indicates that the requested resource has been temporarily moved to a new location.

How to fix a 302 status code

Here are some ways to fix a 302 status code:

• Correct the redirect destination: Check to make sure that the redirect destination URL is correct and functional. If the URL is incorrect or broken, it can result in a 302 status code.
• Update links: If external links are pointing to pages with a 302 status code, it’s a good idea to update those links to point directly to the correct page instead of relying on a redirect.
• Check server settings: Sometimes, a 302 status code can be caused by incorrect server settings. It’s important to check server settings to ensure that redirects are set up correctly.

What is the difference between a 302 status code and a 200 status code?

A 302 status code indicates that the requested resource has been temporarily moved to a new location. This is often used for redirects when a resource is temporarily unavailable or has been moved to a different location. In contrast, a 200 status code indicates that the request has been successful and the server is returning the requested resource.

In other words, a 302 status code is used for temporary redirects, while a 200 status code is used for successful requests that return the requested content.

Does a 302 status code affect SEO?

A 302 status code can potentially have an impact on SEO, depending on how it is used.

If a 302 redirect is used to temporarily redirect a page to a different URL, search engines will typically update their index to reflect the new URL. However, if the redirect is not properly configured or the redirection is not temporary, it can result in duplicate content, broken links, or other issues that can negatively impact SEO.

In general, it is recommended to use a 301 permanent redirect instead of a 302 temporary redirect when redirecting a page to a new URL.

This will signal to search engines that the redirect is permanent and help ensure that any SEO value from the original page is passed on to the new URL. If a 302 redirect is necessary, it should be used sparingly and with care to ensure that it does not negatively impact the website’s SEO.

Additional resources

Return to List of HTTP Status Codes

Looking to set up a redirect, but need to know the difference between a 301 vs. 302 redirect before getting started? The difference between a 301 vs. 302 redirect is temporary vs. permanent. A 301 redirect means the URL has moved permanently while a 302 redirect means the URL has moved temporarily.

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What is a 301 redirect?

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect to a new page. This redirect means that a page has permanently moved to a new location.

Many companies will use 301 redirects to ensure that someone who types a URL without the “www” portion of the site ends up in the right place.

Since many people often type a site URL without the “www”, it’s a common 301 redirect to use. Another common use is when companies buy other domains and want to redirect people back to their websites. Many companies will purchase domains with misspellings of their company name in anticipation that people will mistype the URL.

Google, for example, has a 301 redirect in place for “gooogle.com.”

What is a 302 redirect?

You only want to use this redirect if you’re planning to bring to original page back.

What’s the difference between a 301 and 302 redirect?

When you’re looking at 301 vs. 302 redirects, you can see that the most significant difference is their application. A 301 redirect is meant for situations where you’re making permanent changes to your site. You’re moving your information to a new page or website with no intentions to go back to the other page.

The opposite is true with a 302 redirect. A 302 redirect is created to keep the original page. Another difference between a 301 and 302 redirect is how search engines read them.

We’ll dive more into this next, but search engines rely on you using the proper redirect, so they know what to do with your pages.

Why does it matter what redirect you use?

When you’re learning about a 301 vs. 302 redirect, a common narrative you’ll hear is that companies don’t use 301 redirects and typically use 302 redirects for everything. After learning the difference between a 301 and 302 redirect, you may feel confused: Does it matter which redirect you use? Yes.

The main reason it matters what redirect you use is because of how search engines read your site. When a search engine crawls your page with a redirect, it needs to determine whether to keep the old page indexed or replace it with the one at the new location. If you’re using 302 redirects for everything, search engines will think that it’s just temporary and won’t transfer any of the page’s value to the new location.

But if you intend to keep this new page and never use the old one, it creates a problem. Temporary redirects don’t transfer any value to the redirected page. The value remains on the original page because, to search engines, the redirect is only for the short-term.

Therefore, unless you do a permanent redirect, your new page will never transfer the old page’s value to the new one. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that 302 redirects don’t have any impact on your SEO (when done correctly). If you’re trying to create a brand-new page, you can’t use a 302 redirect if you want that page to gain value and search rankings.

Which one should you use?

If you’re thinking about using forward type redirects, make sure you use them in the proper context. Use a 301 direct if you:

• Change the URL of a webpage
• Create a new website or page
• Merge two websites
• Switch from HTTP to HTTPS

Use a 302 redirect if you:

• You want to get feedback on a new page on your site without hurting the site’s original ranking in search results
• You want to run a promotion for a sale and temporarily direct visitors to your sales page
• You want to conduct A/B testing on your site’s functionality or design
• You want to redirect people to the right page based on their language or location

Need more help with permanent and temporary redirects?

Now that we’ve looked at the 301 vs. 302 redirect debate, you may be feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what you need for your site. Instead of risking using the wrong redirect, you can get help from the marketing experts at WebFX. At WebFX, we know the ins and outs of creating temporary and permanent redirects.

If you’ve spent any time on the internet, chances are you’ve encountered an HTTP status code.

Because of the complexity of how all those elements interact, there are many possible HTTP status codes you can run up against.

In this article, we’ll cover what you need to know about the HTTP 302 status code – jargon-free.

What is an HTTP 302?

For starters, it’s helpful to know that all HTTP messages with 3xx are redirection messages.

Say blog.hubspot.com no longer exists, and the content is now permanently housed on blogging.hubspot.com. This would trigger a 301 status code, which indicates a permanent redirection from one location to another.

The 302 redirect, on the other hand, is only temporary. A good example of when to use a 302 status code is for localization and language purposes.

For instance, if you visit a clothing website based in the United Kingdom but you are located in the United States. A 302 redirect would send you to the US version of the site to ensure the currency and other content are displayed correctly, according to your location.

You can also use a 302 status code when:

• Conducting A/B tests – Want to test a new page and get feedback on its performance? You can do this with a 302 redirect without hurting your ranking.
• Running a promotion – To drive traffic to a particular offer, you can set up a temporary redirect for a page that usually includes other content.

While this list is not exhaustive, here’s the golden rule to keep in mind: Only use a 302 redirect if the change is temporary.

How a 302 Status Code Affects SEO

From an SEO perspective, it’s important to understand how a 302 status code can impact your ranking and when you should use it.

However, this also means that your temporary URL will not benefit from any link juice because Google knows it won’t be there long.

For comparison, a 301 code typically sends most link equity to your new URL, but your page can experience some drop in ranking as a result of the redirect.

If you want to see when you’ve encountered a 302 redirect (or any type of redirect), consider using an application or Chrome extension (like this one, Redirect Path). This type of tool will show you directly in your browser when you run into a redirect. Tools like Pulsetic can be used to monitor websites and send alerts for server or website errors.

You can also view and implement the code from the backend by accessing your .htaccess file. To avoid accessing this file, you can also install a redirect manager plugin or an SEO tool that includes a redirect manager (like Yoast SEO Premium).

Overall, you want to make sure you understand how redirection messages affect SEO. A 302 status code can be a great strategy when making temporary changes to your website, like testing new website features and product promotions.

So, when you’re debating between various redirection messages, make sure the one you choose aligns with your long-term strategy.

Contents

• What are 302 redirects used for?
• Examples for 302 redirect implementations
• 301 redirect vs 302
• Importance of HTTP 302 status codes for SEO
• In summary: HTTP 302 FAQs

What is the HTTP status code 302?

302 responses are used to redirect an access request from one URL to another. They are most commonly used when web addresses or resource storage locations change. It is important to note that 302 is specifically for temporary redirections. It is intended to enable page requests to be routed to the correct location, but without affecting the URL search engines use when indexing the page.

Examples for 302 redirect implementations

You can also use PHP to implement a 302 redirect:

<?php
header(«Location: http://www.new_domain.com»);

<?php
header(«Location: http://www.domain.com/new_page.php»);

A limitation of this implementation is that it can only be used with pages containing HTML. This means that it cannot be used with images or other multimedia file requests.

Content Management Systems may offer plugins or native features that help implement redirects. For example, WordPress supports a wp_redirect() function. This allows programmers to implement a 302 redirect within the code of a website. For those without access to the underlying code, there are also plugins that can be used to implement 302 redirects. An example of this is the Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin.

Redirects may be chained, though performance can degrade with each subsequent redirect, so they should be limited to as few as possible. You should avoid redirect loops, which can result in pages becoming inaccessible to search engines and visitors.

301 redirect vs 302

Figure: HTTP 302 — Author: Seobility — License: CC BY-SA 4.0

The difference between using a 301 or 302 response is whether or not the page being requested has moved permanently or temporarily. The HTTP 302 response is intended for temporary redirections. If content is moved permanently, a 301 response should be used instead.

When to use 301 redirects

HTTP 301 redirects are intended to be used when a page or resource has been moved permanently. Using a 301 status code enables search engine crawlers and client browser caches to update indexed URLs. Once a 301 redirect has been accessed, the URL of the original request will be replaced with the redirected URL. This enables sites to preserve search result rankings for the same page when it is moved to a different location.

When to use 302 redirects

Since HTTP 302 redirects are intended to be used for temporary redirects, possible applications include promotional sales pages or A/B tests. Another example would be technical errors or site maintenance.

Importance of HTTP 302 status codes for SEO

Using HTTP 302 status codes is highly recommended from an SEO perspective. If the location of a resource has changed and no redirect status codes are issued, they will instead return another status code, typically 404. This is the ‘page not found’ status code, and it indicates a resource was not found at the provided URL.

Search engines such as Google continually recrawl and re-index websites. How often any particular site is re-indexed will depend on many factors, but pages and locations that return 404 status codes will be removed from search results. This means that pages that appear high in search results risk being removed, potentially resulting in major traffic losses.

The key difference between using a 301 or 302 redirect is how search engines and browsers deal with the original URL. When a 301 permanent redirect is used, browser caches and search engine crawl bots update the URL of the resource and do not attempt to access the original URL again. When a 302 temporary redirect is used, browser caches and search engine crawl bots will continue to try to access the original URL in subsequent visits.

HTTP 302 FAQs

What does the HTTP 302 status code mean?

The HTTP 302 status stands for “Found” and means that a resource has been temporarily relocated to another URL.

How do you implement 302 redirects?

You can implement 302 redirects using the .htaccess file, PHP, or your content management system.

What is the difference between 301 and 302 redirects?

301 redirects mean that a file has been moved permanently, while 302 redirects are used for temporary redirects.

Why is the 302 status code important for SEO?

The 302 status code is relevant for SEO because if you change a file’s location without a redirect, your page might show a 404 error. Resources that return that kind of error will be removed from search results.