302 Redirect

TL;DR;

The 302 redirect is an HTTP response you can set for one or more of the URLs on a webpage, in order to forward traffic temporarily to another URL. The reason for doing this redirect usually has to do with sections of the website that are temporarily unavailable, where work in progress may be going on. However, the use of the 302 HTTP response has been recently updated and its role taken over by the 307 HTTP response.

Find out What is a 304 Not Modified error

What is a 302 redirect?

A 302 response status code commonly used for temporary URL redirection in order to forward traffic from a URL that is temporarily unavailable (either it is being worked on or there is another reason it is temporarily unavailable), to one where the information can be found. According to more recent standards, the “moved temporarily” function has been assigned to the 307 HTTP response, so this can be used for the same purpose as 302. However, many webmasters still use it instead of the 307. 

What is the difference between a 301 redirect and a 302/307 redirect?

While the 301 redirect is used to show a permanent move (for example, when a website switches domain names), the 302 and 307 redirects are only temporary. Unlike the 301, they do not transfer the qualities and the page rank of the old URL to the new one. If a server receives a request for the old URL, it will check the old URL and redirect to the new one. In the case of the 301 redirect, the second time a request is made, the server directly checks the new URL. However, in the case of the 302 and 307 redirections, the server will once again check for the availability of the old URL, to see if it is back up, before making the redirect.