SEO News
Posted By Blogger

Will You Lose PageRank with a 301 or 302 Redirect?

It's all safe with 301s.


This article was updated on August 6th, 2020 at 05:57 am

Well, PageRank is not anymore, but let’s call it “Domain Authority” for clarity sake.

One question that gets asked repeatedly in SEO forums and Slack channels (Yes, there are a few) is about 301 and 302 redirects. Whenever there’s a site change, domain name switch, URL change or whatever, most SEOs recommend a 301 redirect.

Why? ‘Cos that’s what Google representatives told us.

Google’s Ex Head of Spam, Matt Cutts mentioned that a 301 redirect is your best solution when there are changes made to your website and when you don’t want them to hurt your search rankings.

Was he right in saying so? Probably. But there has also been many complaints from webmasters (like this one on Moz) about how they lost their search rankings soon after the change or after introducing a 301 redirect as Google suggested.

Well, Gary Illyes and John Mueller (both from Google) have confirmed that 301s (permanent redirects), 302s (temporary redirects) and others 30Xs (Yeah, there are more) will not leak PageRank any more. (I think they meant Domain Authority)

Source – The SEM Post. Image courtesy – 1and1

Amazing WordPress Theme