301 redirect
A server-side permanent redirect that tells crawlers a URL has moved for good and that ranking signals should consolidate on the…
TechnicalFoundTemporary redirect
302 redirect
A temporary redirect indicating the resource lives elsewhere for now; the original URL is expected to remain the canonical one.
In full
Because it is temporary, Google generally keeps the source URL indexed and does not transfer signals the way a 301 does — though if a 302 persists for a long time Google may treat it as permanent. 302 is correct for genuinely temporary situations such as maintenance pages, A/B tests and short-lived promotions. Using 302 for a permanent move slows consolidation and can leave both URLs competing.
Example
A store 302s a sold-out product to its category page during a two-week restock, then removes the redirect.
Related terms
307 redirect
A temporary redirect that, unlike 302, guarantees the HTTP method and body are preserved; also the code browsers report for internal HSTS…
Canonicalization
The process by which a search engine groups duplicate or near-duplicate URLs into a cluster and picks one representative URL to index and…
HTTP status codes
Numeric codes in an HTTP response that tell crawlers how to treat a URL: 200 index it, 3xx follow the redirect, 404/410 drop it, 5xx come…
Out-of-stock handling
How a site treats product pages when items are temporarily unavailable — keeping them live with accurate availability rather than removing…