So if you’re here, you are probably wondering what the hell a redirect is, because, frankly, if you need to know the difference between a 301 redirect and a 302 redirect, you probably haven’t done much with redirects. Don’t leave… I’m not insulting you. You’re about to learn the difference and find out which one you should be using, so, if you didn’t know before, you will now. You’re about to become one piece of knowledge smarter.
So basically, a redirect is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a bit of code that says to a browser, hey bud, you’re in the wrong spot. In order to find the content you’re looking for, you should go to this place. In a sense, it’s a detour sign. And, the reality is, 301 redirects will get you to the same place in much the same way as a 302 redirect. So, you say, “if it’s just a detour sign, why the hell should I care whether it’s a 302 or a 301?” Good question. Be prepared to get sick at how far I take the detour sign metaphor. I’m about to extend it as far as a metaphor should be extended.
Ok, so when I was a kid, I lived in Shakopee, MN. When my family first moved in, it was a quaint town of 13,000 people, and the only way in and out was a pseudo highway on one end of town. I say pseudo because, while it was interstate 101, the road is laden with stop lights. It’s not as quick as you want your highways to be. Well, one day, the state decided to build a new route through Shakopee. Highway 169 was put through a more rural section of town. 5 years later, the town had grown to nearly 25,000 people, and the area along the highway was completely developed. Anyhow, to drivers, the ride is forever quicker. When going from Bloomington to Shakopee, they will always take 169. 101 is a thing of the past. That’s a 301 redirect. It’s permanent. There ain’t no going back. In the end, the people who use the highway begin their trips in the same place and end their trips in the same place, but the way they get there has forever changed.
On the other hand, in oftentimes when I’m driving from Shakopee to Minneapolis, sometimes there are sections of the road that are being fixed or expanded. In the meantime, as these roads are being fixed or modified, drivers are directed in a different direction. They are asked to go hither and thither in order to get back onto the other side of the construction. After construction is done, though, the detour is taken away, and I use the old road again. This is like a 302 redirect. It’s temporary. It says to search engine spiders, go this way for a while. This page is located here…for now.
Now you’re wondering, “If that’s the case, then why would i ever want to use a 302″. Now this can get really complex, but the reality is, that there are a lot of legitimate uses for 302 redirects. The most common usage would be when you are making modifications to your site. If you put up a construction page, and send all the pages to it using a 302, it means that the search engines won’t index the construction page and drop the old pages out of the index. It will just leave and come back later leaving the index as it is. A 301 redirect, on the other hand, is usually used when you move a post, or you move your entire site. When a spider comes a’knockin’, it will look at the old page, and credit all the backlinks from the old page to the new page. It generally means that you can retain a lot of your old rankings. So that’s a good thing.
What are some creative ways you’ve used 302s in the past?
