Changing 301s or using 302s after a relaunch?

[nabujona]

We are doing a relaunch and changing nearly every URL. Since the list of redirects is > 5.000 we might have some mistakes we want to change later (i.e. having a 301 to a directory but finding a single page later that fits its purpose better).

Can I change the 301 later and will seachengines get that?

Can I use 302s for a week or two until I'm sure about my redirects and only than do propper 301s?

[MonicaOConnor]

Above everything, Google looks for your user experience. If you have a ton of 302 redirects you will have duplicate content errors, If you start changing 301 redirects you will eventually create a spider web that is hard to navigate. If you set up your 301 redirects and have to change a few, you should be ok. If you set up 5000 redirects and end up changing 4500 of them or creating duplicate 301 redirects you will eventually have really slow page speeds and bad user experience which Google will recognize and not like.

302 redirects are not common or best practice. I would avoid them all together.

[nabujona]

Thanks. I know hot to change them technically. The question is how google will react

[MonicaOConnor]

Are you doing these redirects in the HTAccess file? If so, you should be able to change them at a later date without any issue. A 302 redirect is not going to help you in this situation. Using a 302 will still allow the engines to crawl the old URLs which will lead to duplicate content errors and tons of problems ranking pages in the future.

Whittie is correct, you should be able to go back and edit 301s individually after you dynamically redirect them. It depends on your CMS or Platform how easy that will actually be.

[Whittie]

Depends on the CMS. Anything other than WP,  I just go back through the list and tick them off if they're correct, might not be the quickest way to do it. Are you using WordPress? There's a redirection plugin which allows you to do each individually so you can check it's correct as soon as you've applied the 301.

[nabujona]

And how's your experience changing them later on?

[Whittie]

I would really try to avoid using 302's if possible, they can end up being more trouble than they're worth.

Setting up 301 redirects is a pain but helps the moving process to be a lot smoother. Nobody enjoys putting together a redirect list but it's a necessity, have 1000 still to get through myself!