How Permanent 301 and Temporary 302 Redirect are Different?

For the people who’re from a non-technical background, the terms 301 and 302 redirect sounds odd. Before going further to explain what these terms are and how they can impact the search engine optimization, you must understand the concept of redirecting.

What is redirecting?

Redirect as depicts from its name means moving or directing the certain thing or someone to a new place or via a different path. In technical terms, redirecting a webpage means providing it a new URL, changing the navigation, design, and other elements. There are different reasons for redirecting the page such as broken or ineffective URL, new URL, the site does not work properly or no longer remain active, error on the website, and more.

A search engine considers each redirect differently on the basis of several factors and website owner needs to perform the redirect accurately so that Google and all major search engines do not get confused. The wrong redirect can result in the loss of traffic. Use the best practices to effectively and successfully optimize the SEO performance.

Let’s discuss now on the major difference between 301 and 302 redirect.      

What is permanent 301 redirects?

301 permanent redirect is used ensure that online visitors and Google are sent to the right page. It is referred as permanent because it is used to permanently redirect a page and all the features of redirected page such as page rank, traffic value, link popularity, and page authority will be transferred to detour page. This status code is implemented when changes implemented are lasting or the page has been permanently directed to a new place.  

The data or qualities moved to new page are done in an accurate way. When you have done it, the user will see the new one instead of the previous page as old URL gets changed in search engine result. Access the .htaccess file within a server if you’re having a site hosted on the server that runs Apache otherwise get the more detailed information for a website hosted on server running any other software.

When to use 301 redirects?

301 status code must be used when you want to make crawlers know that content has been moved eternally. The previous page is removed instantly from the index of Google and gets replaced by the new page. Add 301 redirects when you have moved your website to a new domain, there are multiple URLs for accessing the website and HTTP to HTTPs migration.

The following are the cases when you should use this redirect:

• The specific webpage is deleted or moved.
• If you’re taking the new top level domain then 301 redirects will be the best choice for you as it will send the traffic volume to a new site without damaging its ranking.
• If you want to pass on the traffic of non-WWW site to WWW version. Using the permanent redirect gives the internal web pages a significant niche boost.
• If you have multiple websites from which some of them are outdated but still holds the huge relevance then you must consider permanent redirect.
• When you’ve sites with multiple home pages URL having the similarly identical page you need to update the home page links ensuring only non-index.html version is referenced. Including permanent redirect will be the only way that helps you with this without cracking or reducing the webpage value.     

What is temporary 302 redirects?

302 also referred as temporary redirect are temporary in nature. This code is generally used if website owner wants to redirect the visitors and search engine into another location only on a temporary basis i.e. for certain duration of time. As the redirection is done on a temporary basis, it will not pass all the qualities to detour webpage as in the case of 301 means the redirected webpage will hold its previous characteristics. If it is used inaccurately just by mistake it can result into the lower ranking. When this option of redirecting is used, it normally displays moved temporarily (HTTP 1.0) or 302 found (HTTP 1.1).

Unlike 301 redirecting, it does not need access to server files because it can be implemented by Javascript or Meta tag.

When to use 302 redirects?

There are only some cases when 302 redirects prove useful otherwise mostly top SEO Company Delhi recommends going with 301 redirects. In most of the cases, permanent redirect considers being the better choice for webmasters or website owners.

Here are some situations when the practical use of temporary redirecting may be a good choice:

• Temporary 302 redirecting is used mostly in the cases when webmasters or website owner just want to test the new webpage for client feedback without actually changing the traffic value or ranking of the old page.
• When temporarily relocating the webpage with the real final destination of a page being present at its original location.
• When you want to convert the messy and long URL into a simple URL and mod-rewrite does not work efficiently then temporary redirect may a better choice. It notifies search engine to use the original shorter URL while indexing and ranking are done on the basis of a content of longer URL.
• When you want to send the traffic to the new promotional page only for short duration and make the original active again once the promotion is completed.   

How to check if redirects are implemented accurately?

One of the easies and quickest to determine whether you’ve used redirects correctly is to try loading the redirected page and examine what appears on the browser. The knowledgeable and technical expert is able to analyze the result but for people from non-technical background, everything seems correct.  

To make sure the best utilization, use Header Checker tool, enter the URL of redirected page, and determine what comes as an outcome.

301 permanent and 302 temporary redirect warnings

Redirecting multiple pages to a single location could not be the better option because it might make you flagged as spam. Mostly the spammers create thousands of pages and redirect them to one location in order to boost the traffic and search engine ranking but it is not a good way. If Google finds you doing this it may end up banned. So never do the mistake of redirecting the large numbers of pages.  

How 301 and 302 redirects affect SEO?

According to “Matt Cutts”, the head of Google’s Webspam team 301 redirects will not results in the loss in link juice, however, some people said that it may create a loss of 15% in link juice. Search engine visibility can be affected badly if 302 redirects are used incorrectly and create confusion for search engines.

Although both redirect options are used for the different purpose but still 301 redirects is recommended by experts as it is well understood by the search engines.

Conclusion

As the majority of the important topics get touched in the above section, at last, it is advised to first analyze the purpose you want to use redirect before actually implementing it. If you don’t have the updated and complete knowledge of how to implement the redirect, it would be a great idea to avail the Best SEO Services in Delhi from a reliable company.