If you do 302 redirect then change to 301 redirect do you lose all link juice?
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Hello everyone,
I was wondering if you could help me with understanding the following story:
A website has been moved from its HTTP version to a HTTPS version. The SEO manager has advised developers that they needed to do 301 redirects. However, in the end, 302 redirects have been put in place instead. Now, 301s should be put in place ASAP.
The million dollar question is: has the website lost all of its link juice already given the nature of the redirects? Also, does it depend on whether Google has indexed the new 302 pages or does it depend on something else?
Many thanks!
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It hasn't lost the juice as a 302 is just a temporary move to google. Once you move to a 301 you're telling google it has been moved permanently.
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301s only cause a slight loss in link authority, and is what you want to do longterm. Your current 302s are actually worse, and doing nothing for your link authority to the pages they're redirecting to since 302=temporary, which tells Google you're still making up your mind.