Hello,
I apologize for the issue you are facing with the Not Indexed pages in Google Webmaster Tools. When it comes to removing redirects, it’s important to consider a few factors:
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Purpose of the Redirect: If the redirect is still serving a purpose (e.g., directing users to relevant content), it may be wise to keep it. Removing a redirect that is still needed could lead to broken links or a poor user experience.
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Type of Redirect: If you are using temporary redirects (302), consider changing them to permanent redirects (301) if the content has permanently moved. This helps search engines understand that the original page is no longer available and that they should index the new page instead.
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Timeframe: The advice about removing redirects after 12 months can be applicable if you are certain that the old URL is no longer needed and that users are not relying on it. However, it’s essential to ensure that there are no broken links or negative impacts on user experience before doing so.
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Monitoring: After removing a redirect, monitor your site’s performance in Google Search Console to ensure that there are no adverse effects on indexing or traffic.
If you find that certain redirects are causing issues with indexing, you may want to simplify them or ensure they point to the correct final destination. For more detailed guidance on handling redirects, you can refer to our article on solving Redirection Issues using Rank Math.
Thank you for raising this concern! If you have specific URLs in mind or need further assistance, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from our team will assist you further.
Sources:
Page With Redirect – Google Search Console Status » Rank Math
Hello,
Thank you for your query and we are so sorry about the trouble this must have caused.
Can you please share the affected URL with us so we can further check it on our end?
Looking forward to helping you with this one.
Hi Princess,
Thanks for looking into this for me. Here is the URL:
https://www.vaughanprint.com
What I am seeing is there are quite a numder of unindexed pages in Google Search Console and most of these are related to 301 redirects that have accumulated over many years for the site that has been running since 2000 and has had about 5 rebuilds.
• Page with redirect 145 pages
Other reasons for not been idexed are:
• Alternate page with proper canonical tag 5 pages
• Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag 3 pages (to be expected)
• Not found (404) 1 page
• Crawled – currently not indexed 44 pages
• Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user 4 pages
Would there be some overlap of those above with the redirects?
Are crawls being exhausted by all of the above and would it be better if they were avoided. I do notice with other sites I manage a similar situation where a certain proportion on nonindexed pages, including redirects. Is this a normal scenario for most sites and is it ok, or is it better to just drop older redirects and just remove them if they are older than 12 months? Some go back 5 yeras.
Are there other solutions? I see the 410 content deleted option.
Thanks again.
Hello,
If those URLs are correctly redirecting, then the report is correct for them.
However, Google is still discovering them on your site, and indeed taking up some of your crawl budget.
You should use the URL inspection tool of your GSC account to check those URLs and check the referring page where they are coming from.
Once you know their referring page, you can unlink or update them so Google won’t discover them anymore.
Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
