301 vs 302 Redirects: Understanding the Differences

4 min read

Google’s own team says a 301 and a 302 redirect will both get your page into search. So the choice matters less than many site owners fear. The rest of this week’s search news makes a sharper point. The numbers in your dashboards don’t always mean what they appear to mean.

Redirects: the 301 versus 302 choice is smaller than you think

Google’s Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin discussed how permanent and temporary redirects affect canonicalization and ranking signals. A 301 tells crawlers the move is permanent. So the index should swap in the new URL. A 302 says the change is temporary, and the old URL will eventually come back.

Prommawin’s advice was calm. Google will still index a page either way. The real question is which URL shows up in results. Illyes put it bluntly: Google’s crawlers don’t care at all.

The part that matters is deduplication. When several pages carry nearly identical content, Google groups them into a cluster and picks one representative URL, called the canonical. Only the 301 has that canonicalization effect, so a temporary move on a page you want to rank can leave the wrong URL in charge.

Lead quality: your cost per acquisition can look great while sales complains

A question from a reader in a recent Ask A PPC column on Search Engine Journal captures a common problem. The campaigns hit their cost-per-acquisition target. The sales team says the leads are getting worse. The columnist, who works for Microsoft Advertising and disclosed that, argues the ad platform is doing exactly what it was told.

The fix starts with definitions. A sales-qualified lead (SQL) is a contact who shows the traits of a likely customer and has agreed to a demo or trial. If you count every form fill as equal, the bidding system can’t tell a strong opportunity from a dead end.

Think of it this way: 100 leads come in, and only 10 are SQLs. Training the platform on all 100 teaches it that the other 90 were worth the same as the 10.

Bot clicks in Search Console: check before you panic

Between October 31 and November 2, 2026, several sites saw Search Console clicks jump between 2x and 6.5x. Impressions stayed flat. Marie Haynes, writing for Search Engine Journal, concluded that the spikes were not human searchers. Her explanation is either external bot retrieval or a Google logging issue that counts automated fetches as clicks.

Most sites in her review looked normal.

The affected pages were mostly ranking on pages two through six, and many showed click-through rates between 45% and 100% on one-off query variations, mostly on desktop.

To see the damage, filter the Pages tab by position greater than 10, or switch the Device filter to mobile for a cleaner trend line. Search Console has no single button that strips out only bot clicks.

Ads inside Google AI answers cluster in apparel and electronics

A report from Adthena counted approximately 175,100 paid ad placements inside Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode in the U.S. between June and September. Apparel accounted for about 111,000 of them, and consumer electronics for about 55,000. Travel came in at roughly 6,500, with beauty and toys far behind.

The same report counted 204,489 ChatGPT ad placements in the same five holiday categories. Adthena sells ad tracking for both platforms, so read its numbers with that in mind. The report shows where ads appeared. It does not show clicks, spend, or conversions.

Google’s help documentation says all Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns can appear in AI answers automatically. Advertisers can’t opt out of those placements on their own. Negative keywords and brand exclusions can limit exposure, though. For a restaurant or a small hotel, that means checking your campaign settings now, not after the holiday rush.

The company’s report also noted that U.S. AI Overview appearances rose 89%, from 304 million to 575 million, between August 2025 and August 2026. The report does not say which queries were counted. So treat that growth figure as a directional signal rather than a settled measure.

A click report can tell you a lot, and still tell you nothing about who was actually standing on the other side of it.

Taken together, these stories point to one habit. Check what your numbers actually measure before you act on them. Start with your lead definitions, then look at your Search Console filters, and set a reminder to review AI placement settings before the next quarter. If you want help sorting out which signals matter for your business, Marz Innovations works with restaurants, hotels, and service providers on exactly that kind of measurement and upkeep.