Understanding The 301 Redirect
by Derrick L
Why would anyone use the 302 redirect vs. the 301 redirect?
Actually, there aren't too many situations in which a 302 is appropriate. It is makes much more sense to move a page permanently. So again, why are 302 redirects used?
1. 302 redirects are much easier to create than 301s.
2. The creation of a 301 redirect requires special .htaccess file commands.
3. Creating a 301 redirect takes more time.
4. A 301 redirect on a domain can hurt your rank, and trigger a Google aging delay. i.e. sometimes a website drops completely out of the search engine rankings, for several months.
Anytime the 302 direct is used, the search engines are being told to keep the old domain or web page indexed but also index the new page/domain.
In most cases the search engines figure out how to handle your 302 redirects (i.e. should they really be 301 redirects or not). The real question is, do you really want to give them the chance?
