One SEO professional asked about redirects in Google Search Console during the submitted Question and Answers segment in John Mueller’s hangout.
They asked: they see a dramatic increase in redirect errors of their site. This is happening in the Google Search Console coverage report.
All redirects look technically fine and there are 301s. But, nearly all URls listed in the report are for old products that now redirect to a more general all products page.
Has Google started to treat that kind of redirect as redirect errors?
John observed that it sounds like there’s a very specific situation on their site regarding redirects and data that they are seeing in Search Console.
This is something John would post in the Help forums. He also recommended that they post a screenshot of what they’re seeing, along with some of the sample URLs that were flagged, and a bit of background about what happened here.
Perhaps that’s something that someone could take a look at and give you some tips on what you may be missing out on.
One of the things John suspects may be happening here is that Google picked up those URLs in the sitemap file, and the SEO pro is now redirecting them to something else.
Then Google systems would be thinking “Well, you mentioned them in the sitemap file. Why don’t they actually work?” Perhaps that’s why they are flagged.
This happens at approximately the 19:58 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
John (Submitted Question) 19:58
I see a very dramatic increase in redirect errors of our site in the Search Console coverage report. All redirects look technically fine. There are 301s. Nearly all URLs listed in the report are for old products that now redirect to a more general all products page. Has Google started to treat that kind of redirect as redirect errors?
John (Answer) 20:23
So it sounds like there’s a very specific situation on your website with regards to redirects and data that you’re seeing in Search Console. And this is something I would probably post in the Help forum. Maybe a screenshot of what you’re seeing, some of the sample URLs that have been flagged, and a little bit of background about what all happened there. Possibly, that’s something that someone could take a look at and give you some tips on what you might be missing. One of the things I suspect might be happening there is that we picked up those URLs in your Sitemap file, and you’re redirecting them now to something else. And then our systems are like, Well, you mentioned them in the sitemap file. Why don’t they actually work? And maybe that’s just why they’re flagged.
