301 vs. 302 Redirects
The difference between telling search engines a page moved permanently versus just temporarily.
What it means
A 301 redirect tells browsers and search engines a page has moved permanently, and it should transfer the old page's ranking value to the new address. A 302 redirect says the move is temporary, so search engines generally keep the original URL indexed and don't pass ranking value along in the same way.
Why it matters
Using the wrong type is a common, easy-to-miss mistake — a page moved permanently but redirected with a 302 can lose the ranking history it built up, and a site migration full of 302s instead of 301s can quietly tank search visibility for months.
ask datanephew
How do I know if my redirects are set up correctly?
Ask datanephew to check your redirect chains — it can follow them and flag whether a permanent move is using a 301 versus a 302.
I moved some pages and traffic dropped — could this be why?
It's worth checking. Ask datanephew to look at whether the redirects for those pages are 301s, and whether search engines still have the old URLs indexed instead of the new ones.