Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. On-Page Optimization
    4. My nofollow link is showing as a 302\. Is this OK?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    My nofollow link is showing as a 302\. Is this OK?

    On-Page Optimization
    3
    10
    2831
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Buhrly
      Buhrly last edited by

      My nofollow link is showing as a 302. Is this OK? Not looking to pass any juice along but don't want to be penalized either.

      Thanks Buhrly

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Buhrly
        Buhrly @Theo-NL last edited by

        (1) an internal link between two pages on your website, (2) an external link from your website to another website

        So in these two situations if a nofollow was needed would you use a 302 redirect?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Buhrly
          Buhrly @AlanBleiweiss last edited by

          Good point Alan on the paid links. Adding the nofollow would be following Google guidelines and there is risk in not following this.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • AlanBleiweiss
            AlanBleiweiss @AlanBleiweiss last edited by

            sure, it would be defeating the purpose.  But here's the thing.  You either follow Google guidelines for paid links, or you risk the penalty they impose.  It's a risk/reward issue.  So you need to choose.

            Since I only recommend SEO best practices that involve the least amount of risk, I recommend that you don't accept paid links in the first place.  but if you do, put nofollow in them.

            As for sculpting links, I've personally never advocated spending time trying to sculpt.  You could spend hundreds of hours trying different arrangements and not ever know if you've made a positive difference, or if something else in the hundreds of search factors changed that day.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Buhrly
              Buhrly @AlanBleiweiss last edited by

              OK Alan you are saying that if you put a link on your site that it would be a standard link but if another site paid you for a link that you would use a nofollow? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of what they would be looking for if they paid for a link from your site. Not trying to be difficult just trying to understand. The 302 was set by the owner/developer of the site. In the case of internal linking linking lets say your page has way over a hundred internal links and you want to thin them out and sculpt the ranking of the pages. What would you use.

              Thanks Buhrly

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • AlanBleiweiss
                AlanBleiweiss @Buhrly last edited by

                Ok - no actually.  302 redirects should only be set up by the owner of the site that maintains the page.

                If you want to put links on YOUR site pointing to someone else's, make it a regular link but with the "nofollow" attribute if they're paid links.  If you're just linking to other sites because the link connects their related content to yours and you want to offer that additional information, don't do the "nofollow" or redirects.

                Your own links within your site pointing to your own pages should be regular links, no redirects, no use of the "nofollow" attribute.

                Buhrly AlanBleiweiss 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Buhrly
                  Buhrly last edited by

                  The nofollow was put in on a out going external  link from the site i am working on shows up as a 302. Is this the best way to approach a nofollow for external links? And would this be the best way for internal links within the site also?

                  AlanBleiweiss 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • AlanBleiweiss
                    AlanBleiweiss @Theo-NL last edited by

                    Good point Theo - we definitely need more info here.  I had assumed it was a case where Jeremy was just talking about a link he's got to another site - a regular link to a regular page, but where the site owner has somehow gotten a 302 going on that page.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Theo-NL
                      Theo-NL @AlanBleiweiss last edited by

                      Not necessarily entirely 'their issue', because if Jeremy is linking with a 302 redirect without wanting to do so, this issue might occur on more places across his website.

                      To expand on the question by Alan: is this (1) an internal link between two pages on your website, (2) an external link from your website to another website or (3) a link from another website to your website?

                      AlanBleiweiss Buhrly 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • AlanBleiweiss
                        AlanBleiweiss last edited by

                        Do you mean a link you have on your site pointing to someone else's site?  If so, that's their issue and should not negatively affect your site or rankings.

                        Theo-NL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • 1 / 1
                        • First post
                          Last post

                        Got a burning SEO question?

                        Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                        Start my free trial


                        Browse Questions

                        Explore more categories

                        • Moz Tools

                          Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                        • SEO Tactics

                          Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                        • Community

                          Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                        • Digital Marketing

                          Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                        • Research & Trends

                          Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                        • Support

                          Connect on product support and feature requests.

                        • See all categories

                        Related Questions

                        • NicheSocial

                          Should an internal link open in a new tab or in the same window?

                          Should an internal link open in a new tab or in the same window? Seems like this is an issue that has never had a definitive answer one way or the other. But I couldn't find any recent articles from reliable sources taking a stance and answering this question. Does anyone know if user engagement metrics (time on site, bounce rate, pages per visit) are impacted if a user clicks a link that opens in a new tab? Thanks!

                          On-Page Optimization | | NicheSocial
                          0
                        • doctecs

                          Link flow for multiple links to same URL

                          Hi there,
                          my question is as follows: How does Google handle link flow if two links in a given page point to the same URL? (do they flow link individually or not?) This seems to be a newbie question, but actually it seems that there is little evidence and even also little consensus in the SEO community about this detail. Answers should include source Information about the current state of art at Google is preferable The question is not about anchor text, general best practises for linking, "PageRank is dead" etc. We do know that the "historical" PageRank was implemented (a long time ago) without special handling for multiple links, as e.g. last stated by Matt Cutts in this video: http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-one-page-two-links-page-counted-first-link-192718 On the other hand, many people from the SEO community say that only the first link counts. But so far I could not find any data to back this up, which is quite surprising.

                          On-Page Optimization | | doctecs
                          0
                        • HochKaren

                          Best practice for Portfolio Links

                          I have a client with a really large project portfolio (over 500 project images), which causes their portfolio page to have well over the 100 links that are recommended.  How can I reduce this without reducing the number of photos they can upload?

                          On-Page Optimization | | HochKaren
                          0
                        • FarrisFahad

                          How does Google Detect which keywords my website should show up for in the SE?

                          When I checked my Google Webmaster Tools I found that my website is showing up for keywords that I didn't optimize for ... for example I optimize my website for "funny pictures with captions", and the website is showing up for "funny images with captions". I know that this is good, but the keyword is dancing all around, sometimes I search for "funny pictures with captions" and I show up in the 7th page, and some time I don't show up. and the same goes for the other keyword. of course I am optimizing for more than two keywords but the results is not consistent. my question is how does Google decide which keywords you website should show up for? Is it the on-page keywords?, or is it the off-page anchor text keywords? Thank you in advance ...
                          FarrisFahad

                          On-Page Optimization | | FarrisFahad
                          0
                        • AdamThompson

                          Internal Linking - in content vs navigation menu

                          Would like to get some thoughts on whether navigation menus or in-content links are best for internal linking, from an SEO standpoint. A few thoughts to get started with: For sites with a lot of content, you can have a navigation menu linking to your higher-level pages, then in-content links to deeper pages on your site. For smaller sites, this is not an option, as the navigation menu will probably link to all your important pages. You could add in-content links, but Google only counts the first link on the page, so the in-content links would be ignored if you'd already linked yp the page in your top nav menu. I can think of several possible reasons navigation menu links could be less desirable than in content links from a Google perspective. (They are sitewide boilerplate content without context.) If you setup your navigation structure based on what is best for the user, small sites don't have much wiggle room to optimize internal link structure, as all their money pages will be linked to from the top nav menu. Do you think Google prefers in content links to navigation menu links? If so, how do you get around the fact that for many sites, all their money pages are being linked to from their main navigation menu?

                          On-Page Optimization | | AdamThompson
                          0
                        • jampaper

                          How do I PERMANENTLY change an incorrect URL link with one of my keywords?

                          Hello, I received an “F” grade on my on-page report for one of my keywords. I noticed that the URL linked with that keyword was wrong. After changing it to the correct URL, I received an “A.” However, the change was not permanent. How do I permanently change the URL? I don’t see any “Save Changes” or “Apply Changes” button anywhere. Thank you!

                          On-Page Optimization | | jampaper
                          0
                        • Ideas-Money-Art

                          Is is ok to have multiple H2 or H3s?

                          Hi mozzers, I am wondering if the search engine gets bothered to read multiple heading 2s or heading 3s or heading4s (these would be unique content headings of course)? I am asking this because I need to follow a consistent content structure and many of titles would fall into one type of headings. Thanks Ty

                          On-Page Optimization | | Ideas-Money-Art
                          7
                        • mevseo

                          Is it ok to use the H1 tag for bullet points?

                          Our search results page doesn't have a typical H1 tag because adding a true header would take up space unnecessarily. Therefore, we've assigned the h1 tag to be the breadcrumb. As filters are applied, the breadcrumb grows to include these filters. This breadcrumb is coded as bullet points, even though they're not the typical style of bullet points. Here's a screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/AjGC9iAYR3 For example, the breadcrumb: Home >> NYC Social Media Classes >> Adult >> Manhattan is currently coded as: | |
                          |   | * class="first"><a <span="">href</a><a <span="">="</a>/">Home |
                          |   | * <a <span="">href</a><a <span="">="</a>/nyc/classes/social-media/age-adults/neighborhood-manhattan" class="Selected">Search results |
                          |   | |
                          |   | |
                          |   | id="cat_social-media" type="checkbox" checked onclick="setCategory('social-media')" /> |
                          |   | # style="font-size: 12px; display: inline;">NYC Social Media Classes |
                          |   | <label <span="">for</label>="cat_social-media"> |
                          |   | |
                          |   | |
                          |   | |
                          |   | <nobr>id="age_adults" type="checkbox" checked onclick="setAge('adults')" /><label <span="">for</label>="age_adults">Adults</nobr> |
                          |   | |
                          |   | |
                          |   | <nobr>id="nbhd_manhattan" type="checkbox" checked onclick="setNeighborhood('manhattan')" /><label <span="">for</label>="nbhd_manhattan">Manhattan</nobr> |
                          |   | |
                          |   | | Right now that H1 tag just relates to 'NYC Social media classes', but we'd like to expand it to include both 'Manhattan' & 'Adults' - would that be ok? And if so, would it be better to put the tag before and after the tag?

                          On-Page Optimization | | mevseo
                          0

                        Get started with Moz Pro!

                        Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                        Start my free trial
                        Products
                        • Moz Pro
                        • Moz Local
                        • Moz API
                        • Moz Data
                        • STAT
                        • Product Updates
                        Moz Solutions
                        • SMB Solutions
                        • Agency Solutions
                        • Enterprise Solutions
                        • Digital Marketers
                        Free SEO Tools
                        • Domain Authority Checker
                        • Link Explorer
                        • Keyword Explorer
                        • Competitive Research
                        • Brand Authority Checker
                        • Local Citation Checker
                        • MozBar Extension
                        • MozCast
                        Resources
                        • Blog
                        • SEO Learning Center
                        • Help Hub
                        • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                        • How-to Guides
                        • Moz Academy
                        • API Docs
                        About Moz
                        • About
                        • Team
                        • Careers
                        • Contact
                        Why Moz
                        • Case Studies
                        • Testimonials
                        Get Involved
                        • Become an Affiliate
                        • MozCon
                        • Webinars
                        • Practical Marketer Series
                        • MozPod
                        Connect with us

                        Contact the Help team

                        Join our newsletter
                        Moz logo
                        © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                        • Accessibility
                        • Terms of Use
                        • Privacy

                        Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.