QA finding
A page now redirects to a page about something else
QA Warning Severity: Medium
Part of the audit The status code and the page say different things. Finding id: qa.redirectToUnrelatedPage.
What it costs you
Visitors and search engines that follow the old URL land on a page that does not answer what they came for. Search engines treat such a redirect as a missing page.
What to do
Redirect to the page that replaces the old one. If nothing replaces it, answer 410.
What it checks
- Redirect to an unrelated page
How to fix it
Redirect to the replacement or say the page is gone
- Find the page that now holds the content of the old URL and redirect there with a 301.
- If the content was removed, answer 410 on the old URL.
- Remove catch-all rules that send every unknown URL to the home page.
How to check: Request the old URL and read where it ends; run this rule again.
Thresholds
| Name | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
max_title_similarity | 0.2 | Similarity (0 to 1) between the old title and the title of the redirect target at or below which the redirect is returned. A redirect to the home page is always returned. Raise it when every title ends in the site name. |
How to verify by hand
Search Console soft-404 report.
What this relies on
The message is right and the status code is a server default.