"Page with Redirect" in Google Search Console

When you encounter the "Page with redirect" status in Google Search Console, it means some of your pages are not being indexed. This happens because when users or Googlebot visit these pages, they are redirected to other URLs, and Google ultimately indexes the destination URL.

In most cases, this issue is natural and harmless, and it doesn't affect the visibility of your site. However, if an important page that is canonical is reported with this status, it should be addressed.

Why does the "Page with redirect" error occur?

This message appears when Googlebot, when attempting to crawl a specific page, is redirected to another page. This can cause your site to not appear for certain keywords, especially if the redirected URL is meant to be indexed and listed in your sitemap, which can be quite problematic.

This issue can cause Google to index the redirected page instead of the original one. If the destination URL is still important and should be indexed, it's best to fix the issue as soon as possible to avoid harming your site's ranking.

Note that this issue also occurs with http and https, meaning SSL can also cause this error. You should review each case carefully.

How to Fix the "Page with Redirect" Error

Sometimes, you might have intentionally set up these redirects, which might be normal and natural. So, in these cases, there's no need to worry.

If you've set up a 301 redirect, it’s recommended to change it to a 302 redirect if the old page is no longer needed, which means it's a temporary redirect.

Another thing to do is find and fix unnecessary redirects. Also, if you’ve set up redirects, don’t overwhelm Google with 1,000 redirects to the homepage, as it can confuse the bot.

Be natural on Google!

When visitors are redirected from one URL to another, you can observe this in your browser. When the page starts to load, the URL automatically changes, and the browser displays the final page content instead of the previous page.

When your browser sends a request to the site server, it responds with a 3xx status code, which indicates that the content should be accessed via another URL. The browser immediately follows these instructions, usually without you noticing.

Now, when Googlebot tries to crawl a redirected page, the same thing happens. It gets redirected and cannot crawl the original content.

As a result, Googlebot doesn’t send that page to Google’s index but instead crawls the destination page to decide whether it should be indexed.

When Does "Page with Redirect" Not Cause Problems?

The key thing is that you don’t always need to fix the pages showing the "Page with redirect" status. This simply means there are other pages on your site that no longer need to be shown to users and Googlebot because newer pages are better suited for displaying that content.

Here are a few types of redirects that are beneficial for SEO:

Redirecting Old Pages to New Pages:
For example, when you have an old page that has been updated or removed, you can redirect it to a newer or similar page to preserve SEO value.

Redirecting Pages with Duplicate Content:
If you have several pages with similar content, you can redirect these pages to a main page with better content to avoid the issue of duplicate content.

Redirecting Deleted or 404 Pages to Relevant Pages:
If a page is removed from your site and users or Google still try to access it, you can redirect it to a page with similar content, improving user experience and preserving internal links.

Redirecting Old Category Pages to New Categories:
If your site structure changes or categories are updated, you can redirect old pages to the new categories, preserving SEO and directing users to relevant content.

These types of redirects help preserve your site’s SEO value and improve the user experience.