SignalCrawler
Sign inStart free auditFree audit

“Page with redirect” in Search Console: when it is fine and when to fix it

Updated 11 October 2026

“Page with redirect” lists URLs that redirect somewhere else, so Google indexes the destination instead. That is the expected result of a redirect, and for old URLs, http:// addresses or the non-preferred host it is exactly what you want.

It needs attention in three cases: when pages that should be indexed redirect by mistake, when your own site keeps linking to redirecting URLs, and when the related reason Redirect error appears.

Is it a problem? A quick test

Export the list and look at what kind of URLs are in it:

  • Old URLs after a migration, http:// versions, www or non-www variants, URLs without a trailing slash: fine.
  • Current product, article or category pages: not fine. Something is redirecting live pages, often a rule that is too broad or a missing slash in a template.
  • Your sitemap URLs: not fine. The sitemap should list final URLs only.

When your own navigation, templates or articles link to URLs that redirect, every visit and every crawl takes an extra hop. Google still follows them, but it slows navigation and wastes crawling. Of the 24 sites SignalCrawler audited in September and October 2026, 11 linked internally to redirecting URLs. The usual culprit is a template that writes /category where the site uses /category/.

Fix: update the links to point straight to the final URL. Fix it in the template or menu, and the whole site follows.

Chains, loops and redirect errors

  • Chain: A → B → C. Each hop costs time, and Google follows only a limited number of hops. Point A straight to C.
  • Loop: A → B → A. The page never loads. Search Console reports it as Redirect error.
  • Redirect to an error: the destination answers 404 or 5xx.
  • Temporary redirects for permanent moves: 302 and 307 work, but 301 or 308 states the move clearly.

To trace a redirect, use your browser's developer tools (Network tab, “Preserve log”) or curl -IL https://example.com/old-url, which prints every hop.

How to fix it

  1. Make every redirect a single hop to a final URL that answers 200.
  2. Use 301 (or 308) for permanent moves.
  3. Update internal links, canonical tags, hreflang and the sitemap to the final URLs.
  4. Remove redirects that catch live pages by mistake, and test the rule on a few real URLs before deploying.
  5. For a Redirect error, fix the loop or the broken destination, then click Validate fix.

How to check that it worked

  • curl -IL on an old URL shows one 301 and then 200.
  • A crawl of the site finds no internal links to redirecting URLs.
  • Redirect error disappears from the Pages report after validation.

What SignalCrawler checks here

The audit follows every redirect it meets and reports internal links that point to redirects, redirect chains with two or more hops, redirect loops, host and protocol variants that use temporary redirects or chains, and canonical tags or sitemap entries that point to redirecting URLs.

Related