There are several ways to redirect a webpage or an entire website, and the two main ways are either a 301 or 302 HTTP response code.
Choosing the right option for the right situation is important for SEO because it sends a signal to Google about how to respond to a redirected web page, including whether or not it should be considered canonical.
While Google is constantly evolving how it handles signals, that provided by 301 and 302 response codes hasn’t changed.
In this guide, you’ll learn what 301 and 302 redirects are for, when to use each, how they affect your SEO, and more.
HTTP response status codes
When a browser requests a web page from a server, the server sends a response to the browser telling it whether the request was successful.
This response is called the HTTP response status code.
The response code tells the browser the status of the request for a web page.
There are five types of HTTP response status codes:
- Information responses.
- successful responses.
- Redirect responses.
- Client error responses.
- server error responses.
What are 301 and 302 redirects?
The redirect response status code is a message from the server to the browser, telling the browser that the web page no longer exists at the requested URL.
The redirect response code also informs the browser that the requested webpage has moved to another URL and that the server is now redirecting the browser to the requested webpage at the new location.
You may want to redirect the page for several reasons, including:
- Choose the base URL between WWW and non-WWW.
- You have a new site or page.
- Force the browser to use HTTPS when visiting it using HTTP.
- You are repairing a webpage and want users to go to a different page when the old one is under construction.
The purpose of redirection is to decide which redirection type to choose.
Choosing the wrong option may affect your SEO.
Choosing the right forwarding ensures that you will at least maintain your current rankings.
What is a 301 redirect?
A 301 redirect sends a message to search engines that a website or page has moved Always.
Permanent means about a year or more. After a year, check to see if people are still being redirected to your site.
If so, find out where they are coming from and try to fix the source before canceling the redirect.
Google’s John Mueller recently recommended keeping the 301 redirect in place for at least year.
When should you use 301 redirects?
Many people use 301 redirects when purchasing domains that they want to forward to their primary domain.
You can do this with misspelled domains of a brand or variations of the domain name, for example.
It is also useful to use the 301 code when creating the domain that represents your default site: “www.example.com” or just “example.com”.
It is appropriate to use a 301 if you merge two sites together or have outdated URLs for any other reason as well.
What is a 302 redirect?
A 302 redirect lets search engines know that a website or page has moved Temporarily.
When should you use 302 redirects?
Use this type of redirect if you want to send users to a new site or page for a short period of time, such as when you redesign or update your website.
Use 302 only if you plan to return the old page or set up a new one.
You can also use a 302 redirect if you want to test a new page and get consumer feedback without hurting your ranking from the original page.
How do 301 and 302 redirects impact SEO?
When using a 301, Google removes the old page from its index, and most of the value (link value) from that page is transferred to the new page.
With that said, it’s important to note that any time you move a page from one URL to another, it will take some time for search engines to notice the change – so you can see any possible ranking impact/change.
In general, this period of time is relatively short.
When used correctly, a 302 redirect won’t hurt your SEO efforts.
When you choose this type of redirect, the original page remains indexed in Google and no value (link value) is transferred to the new URL because Google knows this is only temporary.
Thus, you will retain any rankings, traffic value, and authority that page may have.
Where problems tend to arise is when people don’t know the difference between the two, and choose 302 to permanently redirect the site.
Essentially, they create a new website or page and don’t transfer any of the value they have accumulated over time from the old website or web page.
This is why it is important to understand the difference between 301 and 302, and when it is appropriate to use both.
How to implement redirects
Setting up server-side redirects requires access to server configuration files (for example, a .htaccess file on Apache) or setting redirect headers using server-side scripts (for example, PHP).
You can create permanent and temporary redirects on the server side.
If you’re not sure how to do that, there’s Apache .htaccess tutorial and a URL rewriting guide.
If your server is not running Apache, you will have to contact the host for routing.
If your site uses WordPress, you can take advantage of the following plugins that aim to make redirecting as easy as possible:
- redirect: This is for 301 redirects and 404 errors.
- Simple 301 redirects: This only works for 301 redirects, but it works fine.
Redirects the visibility of the search effect
While there are nine redirect response codes that a server can send to a browser, two are used most often: HTTP 301 and 302 response status codes.
Choosing the right one for your purposes is crucial to SEO.
This means understanding which one to use to help Google rank your site where it belongs.
More resources:
- 6 retargeting mistakes that can wreak havoc on your site traffic
- How URL redirects can affect SEO
- SEO technical guide to redirects
Featured image: VectorMine/Shutterstock
