// SEO
301 vs 302 Redirects: Which One Are You Using Wrong?
301 (permanent) and 302 (temporary) redirects have different SEO implications. Most sites have 302s where they should have 301s — and don't know it. How to audit and correct your redirect types.
The difference between 301 and 302
A 301 redirect is permanent — it tells browsers and search engines that the resource at the old URL has permanently moved to the new URL. Search engines transfer link equity from the old URL to the new URL and update their index to replace the old URL with the new one.
A 302 redirect is temporary — it tells browsers and search engines that the resource at the old URL is temporarily at the new URL, and the old URL should be maintained. Search engines do not transfer full link equity on a 302 and typically continue to index the old URL.
Why the wrong type matters for SEO
A 302 where you intended a 301 means: the old URL stays indexed (potentially competing with the new URL), link equity is not fully transferred (the new URL gets less authority than it should), and Google may not remove the old URL from its index even after months.
The scenario where this causes the most damage: site migrations. A full site migration from HTTP to HTTPS, from one domain to another, or from one URL structure to another — if the developer implements 302s instead of 301s, the new site doesn't inherit the old site's authority. Rankings may hold briefly then drop as Google processes the migration, but the authority transfer doesn't complete properly.
When 302 is actually correct
302 redirects are semantically correct for genuinely temporary situations: A/B test variants where you want to preserve the original URL for the long term. Seasonal pages that return each year at the same URL (a Christmas sale page that's live for 6 weeks but the URL persists year-round should 302 temporarily to the live sale, not 301). Maintenance mode pages that show while the real page is temporarily unavailable.
Everything else — URL restructuring, domain migrations, HTTPS upgrades, page consolidations, brand renames — should be 301s. The default for any permanent content move is 301.
Common 302 mistakes and how to find them
The most common mistake: content management systems that implement redirects via plugins often default to 302. WordPress redirect plugins have historically defaulted to 302 or sometimes created 307 redirects instead of 301. If you've added redirects via a CMS plugin, verify the actual HTTP status code returned — not just what the plugin interface says.
Check redirect types using curl: curl -I [URL] returns the HTTP status code in the response header. 'HTTP/2 301' is correct for permanent redirects; 'HTTP/2 302' or 'HTTP/2 307' is temporary. WebEnture's Redirect Mapper Agent audits every redirect on your site, flags 302s and 307s that should be 301s, and shows the full redirect path for each URL.