“Page with redirect” in Search Console: what it means and when to fix it
“Page with redirect” means Google found a URL that redirects somewhere else, so that URL is not indexed. Google's Page indexing report help puts it plainly: “This is a non-canonical URL that redirects to another page. As such, this URL will not be indexed.” For old addresses and http or non-www variants, that is exactly what you want, and there is nothing to fix. It is worth acting on only when the redirected URL is one you still link to, list in your sitemap, or meant to be a real page.
Why the list is usually fine
Every site that moved to HTTPS, picked www or non-www, or retired a page has URLs that redirect. Google keeps a record of them and reports them here so you know it saw the redirect. The URL that matters is the target. If the target is indexed, the redirect did its job.
Seeing this report grow after a migration or a content cleanup is normal. It is a sign that the old URLs are resolving to their replacements, not a penalty.
The entries worth fixing
- The URL is in your sitemap. A sitemap should only list final URLs that answer 200. Replace each redirected entry with its destination.
- Your own pages link to it. Menus, footers and in-text links should point at the final URL, so neither visitors nor crawlers take the extra hop.
- It should not redirect at all. A real page that redirects to the homepage, a login page or a country page is hiding its content. Look for geo or device redirects, expired sessions, and trailing-slash rules that disagree with your canonical tag.
- The target is wrong. If many unrelated old URLs all land on the homepage, Google may treat those redirects like soft 404s. Send each one to the closest real replacement, or let it return 404 or 410 if nothing replaces it.
- It takes several hops. A chain still works, but it is slower and fragile. Collapse it into one hop, as covered in our guide to redirect chains.
How to work through the report
- In Search Console, open Indexing, then Pages, then the Page with redirect row, and export the examples.
- Sort them by pattern: protocol and host variants, old paths, parameter URLs. Most will fall into one or two expected groups.
- Trace a few URLs from each group with the live check below. An expected entry shows one permanent hop to a page that answers 200.
- Cross-check against your sitemap and your internal links. Any redirected URL that appears in either is the real work.
- Fix the ones that matter, then use Validate fix. For expected entries, skip validation. Google updates the count as it recrawls anyway.
What this report cannot tell you
The report does not say whether the target page is indexed or doing well. Check the target separately with URL Inspection. It also only lists URLs Google happened to find, so a clean report does not mean every old link on the web resolves. Fixing entries here tidies how your site describes itself. It is not a ranking lever, and we won't promise it moves traffic.
Verify the fix
For each URL you fixed, the trace should show one permanent hop to a 200 page, or no redirect at all if the page was meant to be real. Re-fetch your sitemap and confirm every entry answers 200 without redirecting. In Search Console, Validate fix on the groups you changed, and give it a few weeks: Google recrawls on its own schedule.