Fill in the blank. If you want a page that’s temporarily down to still appear in search results for some time, use _____________.
- a permanent redirect
- your site’s robots.txt file
- the noindex meta tag
- a temporary redirect
Explanation: The correct answer is a temporary redirect. When a page on a website needs to be temporarily taken down for maintenance or other reasons, but the site owner still wants it to appear in search results, a temporary redirect, also known as a 302 redirect, is the appropriate solution. Temporary redirects inform search engine crawlers that the page has been moved temporarily to a different location. Unlike permanent redirects (301 redirects), which signal that the page has moved permanently to a new URL, temporary redirects indicate that the move is temporary and that the original URL should be retained. This allows search engines to continue indexing the original page while acknowledging that it will return in the future. By implementing a temporary redirect, website owners can ensure that users and search engines are directed appropriately during the temporary downtime, maintaining both user experience and search visibility.