| Alert Properties | Alert Description |
|---|---|
| Alert Name | Pages with improper redirect status found |
| Code | P24 |
| Description | Pages without a status code for redirect, multiple chaining redirects, and cloaking, found |
| Level | Warning |
Using proper redirect status code is necessary for search engine crawlers to understand the reason for the redirect. Without the code, the search engines may downrank those pages. If there is a permanent change in the page URL, use 301 to redirect to the new URL.
If a page redirects to another location and finds another redirect to another location, the redirects are termed as chaining redirects. It is preferable to refrain from using chaining redirects as search engines will not crawl any of those pages.
Redirects that work differently for human users and differently for search engine bots, are cloaking redirects. The redirects that showcase different output pages for desktop and mobile platforms are termed as sneaky redirects.
Using 301 states the URL move for page or domain move for the whole website. If there is confusion between the old URL and the new URL, you can verify the changes by checking on google search console once recognized by Google crawlers.
Don’t use chaining redirects, else the pages will not be crawled by search engines. Also, one should not differentiate redirects between human users and Google bots or for diverse platforms. Additionally, do not check for google bot IP address on any platform.