Redirect Controversy: HTTP 301 vs. HTTP 302

One of the first things that an SEO would mention about a site is whether it is using a redirect and if so what type? Many sites use HTTP 302 redirect incorrectly and get penalized for it. HTTP 302 means that you are using the destination temporarily whereas HTTP 301 means that you are actually having a permanent location for your page. In general, most SEOs would tell you that an incorrect use of 302 could lead to getting de-ranked by search engines or even banned. So when in doubt, use 301 redirect. Here is a great article on how to implement HTTP 301 redirect for your site. Of course, if you are PHP savvy, you can always use the following code:

<?
Header( “HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently” );
Header( “Location: http://www.destination-url.com” );
?>