Random post plugin creates 302 redirects. What should I do?

[Netrepid]

Just started work on a great MMA news site. In their footer, they have a plugin for random posts, which creates URL strings with '?random=1' on the end and then 302 redirects to a random article on the site.

I know SEO-friendly protocol for redirects is to use 301 and not any of the other 300's. However, I don't really see the need to do 301s for these because of the fact that they are random!

That said, I also don't want to leave 1000s of errors that can hinder the 'crawlability' (don't judge me - that's a word :)) of my client's site.

My thought right now is to noindex the urls with the '?random=1' in the string, so the spider doesn't worry about crawling those links. Not sure if that is proper code, but it seems that would be quick and effective.

Is there a better way to attack this? If you know, please share with me!

WP publishers who use random post plugins: have you experienced this? How did you fix it within the friendly confines of Wordpress?

[OlegKorneitchouk]

So if you don't want those links crawled, add rel="nofollow" to the <a>tag. Noindexing the pages will still allow crawlers to follow the links (but won't index what they find). </a>

<a>All of the articles should have canonicals set up to index the file version of each page.

RE: using random post plugins... why random and not related posts? Related posts would have readers more like to click through to another article and improves the overall relevance of the page for SEO. I'd look into a plugin that links directly to a random or relevant post instead of going through an intermediary link.</a>

[Netrepid]

This post is deleted!

[Netrepid]

'nofollow' - got it. Thanks for the response, and your logic makes sense. Would love a 2nd or 3rd on that from the masses just to make sure.

RE: the use or random posts as opposed to related - great question Oleg! My guess is this was a theme feature that was added in to fill the footer, TBH. I use LinkWithin for related posts on almost every blog I manage - I might need to suggest that to this site, too (or something similar).

Appreciate the extra insights.