HTTP STATUS CODES: 302 Temporary Redirect

HTTP status codes indicate a type of response from a web server when it services a web page. Like all status codes in the 300’s, a 302 temporary redirect indicates that the user was redirected from their original URL to a new page.

An HTTP status code of 302 means the page the user is trying to access has been temporarily moved to a different location. With a 302 “Found” or “Moved Temporarily” redirect, the server redirects the user to the new destination despite the original location still being used for requests.

These redirects come in handy when you want to divert users from 404 page-not-found errors, or pages that aren’t currently active but will be in the future. For online retailers, a 302 temporary redirect can come in handy when products are temporarily out of stock or seasonal.

Temporary redirects allow e-commerce sites to prevent users from accessing these unavailable pages for the time being, returning traffic when the products become available again. 302 Moved Temporarily redirects are easier than 301 Moved Permanently redirects to implement, so you can apply and remove them as needed.

However, while they are easier to implement, 302 redirects are generally a poor choice for Search Engine Optimization because search engine bots treat the redirect as temporary. As a result, 302 redirects cause pages to lose all ranking power of the original site. For SEO purposes, the better choice are 301 redirects as they retain most of the original ranking power.

To learn more about using redirects for SEO purposes, read my post on 301 redirects.