Why am I getting the message “Page with redirect” for my URLs?

“Page with redirect” means Google crawled this URL, was sent on to another page and therefore does not index this URL, only, at most, the target. In most cases this is not an error but exactly what should happen, for example after a switch to HTTPS or after a page was renamed. You only need to act if the affected URL is one that should appear in search itself.

The message appears in the Search Console Page indexing report as one of the reasons why pages are not indexed. Whether the redirect target gets indexed is decided separately. The redirect itself is simply a sign that this is not the final address.

When is “Page with redirect” normal?

• HTTP to HTTPS. The old http:// address redirects to the https:// version. The old URL should not be indexed at all.
• With and without www. One variant redirects to the other. That is intended too.
• Trailing slash. Many systems redirect /page to /page/ or the other way round.
• Renamed or merged pages. After a relaunch, old addresses redirect to the new ones with a 301. The old URLs show up under this reason for a while.

In all these cases there is nothing to do. What matters is that each target URL is listed as indexed in the report.

When should you check the redirect?

1. An important page is on the list. If exactly this URL should rank, it must not redirect. Often a forgotten rule in .htaccess, the server configuration or a CMS redirect plugin is behind it.
2. The sitemap contains redirected URLs. Only final addresses belong in the XML sitemap. Redirected URLs in it send a contradictory signal.
3. The canonical points to a redirected URL. The rel=”canonical” tag should always point to the address that answers with status 200.
4. There are chains. If A redirects to B and B to C, every hop costs another request. According to Google, its crawlers follow up to 10 redirect hops by default; beyond that, Search Console reports a redirect error. One hop straight to the target is always best.
5. Internal links point to old addresses. Navigation, footer and body text should link straight to the target URL, not to an address that redirects.

How do you check it step by step?

1. In Search Console, open Page indexing and click the reason Page with redirect. Go through the example URLs and set aside the redirects you intended.
2. Check suspicious addresses with the URL Inspection tool. It shows whether the URL is indexed and which URL Google selected as canonical.
3. Follow the redirect path in the browser’s developer tools (Network tab) or with a crawler. You will see every hop and its status code.
4. Shorten chains to a single redirect, remove unwanted rules and update sitemap, canonicals and internal links to the target URL.
5. Inspect the corrected URL again and, for important pages, request indexing.

You can quickly check the redirect chain of individual URLs with our redirect checker.

Use a server-side 301 or 308 redirect straight to the target for permanent moves, and link internally only to the final address. Then “Page with redirect” is purely informational, not a problem.

Sources

• Search Console Help: Page indexing report
• Google Search Central: Redirects and Google Search
• Google for Developers: HTTP status codes and Google’s crawlers

Want to know whether the messages in your Search Console point to real problems? We check redirects, sitemap and canonicals and show you what actually needs fixing. Book a free intro call or read more about our search engine optimisation.