What will happen if we 302 a page that is ranking #1 in google for a high traffic term?

[maxcdn]

We're planning to test something and we want to 302 a page to another page for a period of time. The question is, the original page is ranking #1 for a high traffic term.

I want to know what will happen if we do this? Will we lose our rank? Will the traffic remain the same?

Ultimately I do not want to lose traffic and I do not want to 301 until it has been properly tested.

[CommT]

Then why redirect at all? Why not just update the page with the new content / layout (whatever) and keep a record of when you changed it. If you keep the old layout / content you can always switch back if the test proves the old worked better than the new...

[maxcdn]

Thank you both.

Yes we did however for the complexity of the test and what we are trying to achieve it made more sense to do a real world production test with 100% of the traffic and compare to historical data.

[CommT]

Hi David,

I was going to say the same as Patrick. A/B test.

We use Google analytics experiments and it has never affected our rankings.

Good luck

Amelia

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi David

Have you considered A/B testing? I am assuming here that you are going to be testing design or layout changes and want to see how users take on these changes.

If so, have you considered trying:
Google Experiments
VWO
Optimizely You can test layouts without having to do redirects via a Javascript snippet that is put on the page in the code.

If not, a 302 could potentially hurt your page's search engine visibility. The redirected page will still retain its PageRank, MozRank, Page Authority and Traffic Value – and the detour page will not accumulate any (source); thus, you won't rank until you bring that page back (and even then, it's not promised). That being said, if you do use a 302 redirect, be EXTREMELY careful and have a backup plan. Don't use this redirect extensively. It should also be noted that 302 redirects that are in place for a certain amount of time WILL be treated as 301s by Bing. If you are testing out page elements, remember you have options above. Here is more information on redirects.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions or comments! Good luck!