301 and 302 redirects are the most commonly used in the SEO world. However, many website owners aren’t sure what effect they could have on your SEO performance. That’s why we created this guide to explain what the two redirects mean and what effect they have on your website’s SEO performance. So, is a 301 or 302 redirect better for SEO?
301 redirects are better for your SEO if you’re creating a permanent redirect. It will pass link equity and indexing across to the new URL which is often what we want in SEO. If it’s a temporary change, a 302 redirect is better because it doesn’t pass these things across to the new URL and keeps it with the original until it’s reinstated.
Read on to find out more about 301 and 302 redirects, what effect they have on SEO, and which one is better for different situations.
Does a 301 Redirect Affect SEO?
Using a 301 redirect signifies to search engines and crawlers that the redirect is permanent and won’t be reverted in the future. This can have some important effects on your SEO.
Because the redirect is permanent, search engines and crawlers will generally consider a target URL as a replacement, meaning that link equity from the old URL is passed across to the new one. This can be particularly important if you’re redirecting a page that has received a lot of backlinks.
Similarly, search engines will consider the old URL as being removed since it’s a permanent change, so it will no longer be indexed in SERPs. Instead, search engines will update their indexing to reflect the new page, effectively replacing the old URL with the new one in their results. This is useful if you’re simply changing the URL of a page rather than removing the content altogether.
How Does a 302 Redirect Affect SEO?
While a 301 redirect is considered a permanent change, a 302 redirect is considered temporary. This signifies that the redirect will be removed at some point to bring the original URL back.
Because of this, link equity is not passed over to the new URL as much as it is with a 301 redirect. This allows you to maintain the authority of the original page and be ready for it to be reinstated on the site.
The original page will also remain indexed on search engines and may not transfer ranking signals to the new URL. This allows you to reinstate the page without having to start from scratch.
Which Redirect Is Best for SEO?
This can depend on what it is you’re trying to achieve by adding the redirect. As a general rule of thumb, 301 redirects should be used when the move is permanent and will not be reverted whereas 302 redirects should be used when you’re planning to reinstate the page in the future. However, you should be cautious not to use this long-term as it can have an effect on your page’s ranking signals over time.
Here are some examples of why you might use each type of redirect:
When to use a 301 redirect
- When creating a new URL structure, e.g. changing from www.example.com/when-to-use-301 to www.example.com/blogs/when-to-use-301
- Site migrations
- When removing pages altogether
If you’re migrating your whole site or changing the URL structure of large portions of your site, you’ll want to conduct redirect mapping to ensure that nothing gets missed. Read our Guide on Redirect Mapping to learn how to proceed.
When to use a 302 redirect
- During site maintenance
- A/B testing
- When the page is temporarily down or the product is out of stock
Technical SEO Support From Wildcat Digital
At Wildcat Digital, we provide technical SEO support to all of our clients, no matter how large or small. Whether it’s a Wix site that you made yourself or a custom WordPress site, we’ve seen it all. If you’re in need of technical SEO support for your site, get in touch with a member of our team to start your journey.
Jamie Stowe
Senior SEO Account Manager
