302 redirect in the same domain - effects in Google?

[kolin]

I've been trying to find information on whether a 302 redirect severely restricts your site in google, and how to tell if it has.

Basically i've read lots about 302s, how to solve them etc, but nothing on the after effects of having one.

I only noticed in september that the ecommerce software i used caused a 302 because it was set up as the initial homepage. (i've since informed the creator about this). so i sorted it out pretty sharpish (it was a redirect to a page on the same domain) and for the past month and a half, it's been responding with a 200.

now, the reason i ask is that our site (first submitted to google in june) still has a low pagerank (possibly zero?) and i want to know whats affecting it. has the 302 caused long term damage?

Thanks to everyone who responds. apologies if this has been covered before, i couldnt see it.

[tedster]

In my experience a 302 from the domain root to an inner page does not cause a problem -- at least not on its own. The URL of the inner page does not get into the main index, and its content is accounted for as if it were at the domain root.

Now there might be some complications if there are backlinks to the inner url. I haven't ever worked with that situation, and I'm not sure how PR would work, or link text influence either. To account for that possibility as much as possible I would suggest a 301 redirect from that inner URL to the domain root, as well as making absolutely certain that no links within the site point there at all.

[kolin]

thanks for that,

i've got it doing a 200 now anyway.

just basically wondering if the 3 to 4 months of unwittingly having a 302 meant that google turned it's nose up at my site.