Does Google penalize a site for having 302 errors? Since it's a temporary redirect, I'm wondering if Google looks at that as a deceptive practice...

I have a site that ranks well is most search engines, but Google doesn't show them in their index- Even though they are in the Google directory with a PR of 0.

Thoughts?

Incorrect redirects can get you into problems with Google as the recent case with Business.com tells.

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1554&highlight=business.com

Just a little FYI when you change headers using php (asp also I believe) to redirect users to a new page. A 302 is sent. You can change that though.

<?php

// this is a 302
header("Location: newpage.htm");

?>

<?php

//this is a 301
header("Location: newpage.htm");
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");


?>

But as a footnote I've got an affiliate amazon site that uses a redirect with out the header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); and Google caches the amazon page as if it were part of my site. If this has caused me any trouble I haven't seen it yet ;)

From what I've seen Google treats the 302 just like a 301 because most programmers detecting user agent or customizing and redirect users to pages best suited for them just change the header location which is a default 302.

Redirector beware:

If you do redirect 301 or 302 to a page that isn't in on the site and a 404 error initiates another redirect you will mostlikely be screwed for a long time. so make sure you double check all your redirects and save yourself a from having to do a new seo and branding campaign. Take it from someone who has learned the hard way :)