Worth Changing Redirect From 302 to 301?

[The_Heavies]

Hi,

I'm doing an audit on a site that had a redesign in Dec 2009. For some reason I looked to see what kind of redirects were used from the old pages to the current ones, and it looks like they used 302s, which obviously isn't ideal. Given that it's been so long and those pages have looong since been de-indexed, is it worth me suggesting that they change those old redirects to 301s? My thinking is that if those old pages were linked to externally then I should recommend it, but I can't find any link info on Linkscape/OSE, Majestic SEO or YSE.

Any comments appreciated.

[EGOL]

I would do it.

[PaulRogers]

I would definitely recommend doing it. The value held by the old pages will help to make the new pages more powerful and improve rankings, making it a win-win situation.

302 redirects are designed for temporary situations, and they should not be used as a solution for permanent redirects.

[Svetoslav]

With 302 redirects, Google first sees the old URL and then moves one to the new one. The bot will always first go the the old page, since 302 means temporary redirect. If you, by any chance, decide to go back to the old URL, Google needs to be kept in the loop and that is why it always checks the old page for the redirect.

In fact, in the results you should see your old URL with the new content indexed. Is that the case? I'm also not quite sure if 302 will pass PageRank. I would say - switch to 301.

[JamesNorquay]

Change them for sure, it is worth the effort.

302 is a temp redirect and will pass no juice.

301 is perm and it will be far more beneficial.

[The_Heavies]

Thanks for your answers, I'll recommend to the client that we switch those old redirects to 301s.

[dawnieando]

I'm ashamed to say that accidentally I had a large number of 302 redirects on pages on one of my sites for a while and inadvertently missed them.  Once I spotted them I changed them to 301's and the impact was significant for rankings.  From experience, I would definitely recommend them.  It's best practice and if there is any link equity to be had, it's easy pickings for your client.