Hayden

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how the ‘Redirect Error’ in Google Search Console can affect Google search visibility and AdSense revenue. When managing a WordPress blog, you’ll frequently encounter “redirect errors” or “pages with redirects” messages in Google Search Console. However, not all redirect errors are equally serious. Some redirect errors can devastate your search visibility and AdSense revenue, while others are merely technical phenomena that don’t actually cause significant problems. Recently, one blogger experienced a dramatic drop in visibility starting December 13th, with 662 out of nearly 1,000 pages failing to appear in Google search results.

This guide will categorize redirect errors by their actual impact and show you how to verify them using command-line tools.

 

 

1. Redirect Error Impact Analysis: Critical vs Harmless

1-1. 🚨 Critical Redirect Errors (Immediate Action Required)

The following redirect errors directly impact search visibility and AdSense revenue:

① Infinite Redirect Loops

  • Page A → Page B → Page A in endless cycles
  • Googlebot abandons crawling, resulting in complete indexing failure
  • Users cannot access the page

② Redirects to 404 Errors

  • Redirecting to non-existent pages
  • Googlebot interprets as “page not found” and removes from index

③ Redirects to Incorrect Targets

  • Redirecting to completely unrelated content
  • Search rankings drop due to mismatched search intent

④ Plugin Conflicts Causing Abnormal Redirects

  • Unpredictable URL changes
  • Inconsistent redirections confuse search engines

1-2. ✅ Low-Impact Redirect Errors (Monitoring Only)

The following redirects are technically flagged as “errors” but actually function normally:

① Normal 301/302 Redirects

  • HTTP → HTTPS transitions
  • www → non-www or vice versa
  • Proper 301 redirects after permalink structure changes

② Mobile Optimization Redirects

  • example.com/post → example.com/post?m=1
  • Serving optimized pages for mobile users

③ Intentional User Experience Redirects

  • Auto-redirect to dashboard after login
  • Language-based page routing

 

 

2. Command-Line Verification of Redirect Status

2-1. Using curl Commands to Check HTTP Status Codes

Basic status code check:

curl -I https://yourblog.com/your-post/

Sample response:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://yourblog.com/new-post/

Quick status code only:

curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}\n" https://yourblog.com/your-post/

Follow redirects to check final status:

curl -L -I https://yourblog.com/your-post/

2-2. Tracing Complete Redirect Chains

Detailed redirect path analysis:

curl -L -v https://yourblog.com/your-post/

Detect infinite loops with redirect limits:

curl --max-redirs 5 https://yourblog.com/your-post/

If an infinite loop exists, you’ll see:

curl: (47) Maximum (5) redirects followed

2-3. Browser Developer Tools Verification

  1. Press F12 (or Ctrl+Shift+I) to open developer tools
  2. Select Network tab
  3. Refresh the page
  4. Check HTTP status codes and redirect chains

Normal 301 redirect example:

  • Status: 301
  • Response Headers show Location: https://newurl.com

Problematic redirect example:

  • Status: 302 (temporary redirect repeating continuously)
  • Multiple redirect chains (3+ redirects)

 

 

3. 8 Main Causes of Redirect Errors in WordPress

3-1. Mobile/Desktop URL Differences

Blogger automatically redirects mobile users to mobile-optimized URLs, but when smartphone Googlebot encounters improper handling of this behavior, redirect errors occur. WordPress can experience similar issues with mobile optimization plugins or theme features.

Verification commands:

# Check desktop version
curl -I -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)" https://yourblog.com/post/

# Check mobile version  
curl -I -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 14_0 like Mac OS X)" https://yourblog.com/post/

3-2. WordPress Plugin Conflicts

SEO plugins, caching plugins, and redirect plugins conflicting with each other can cause unintended redirections.

3-3. .htaccess File Issues

Errors in the root .htaccess file often cause redirect loops. This is especially common when migrating from other CMS platforms to WordPress.

Verification method:

# Check .htaccess file contents via FTP
cat .htaccess

3-4. WordPress Site URL Configuration Errors

Issues arise when WordPress Address URL and Site Address URL don’t match in WordPress Admin > Settings > General.

3-5. Permalink Structure Changes

Redirect errors from switching to numeric post addresses occur because Googlebot gets confused distinguishing between post #1, post #2, etc.

3-6. HTTPS/HTTP Transition Issues

When transitioning sites from HTTP to HTTPS or vice versa without proper redirect configuration.

Verification command:

# Check if HTTP redirects to HTTPS
curl -I http://yourblog.com/
# Look for Location: https://yourblog.com/ in response

3-7. Temporary Domain to Live Domain Changes

When hosting providers like GoDaddy or Bluehost create sites with temporary domains, then switch to actual domains, residual temporary domain URLs can cause problems.

3-8. PDF Downloads and Attachment Links

Download buttons that trigger redirect URLs can be interpreted by Google Search Console as duplicate pages without canonical URLs.

 

 

4. Real Impact Analysis of Redirect Errors

4-1. 🔥 Severe Impact: Search Traffic and Revenue Plummeting

80% Search Visibility Drop Case Study: Indexing is crucial for Google search result visibility. Indexing means Google’s robots will collect your site’s pages for search result display – no indexing means no visibility.

Real case example:

  • Total pages: 1,000
  • Pages excluded from index: 662 (66.2%)
  • Visibility drop: Sharp decline starting December 13th
  • AdSense revenue: Proportional decline with visitor reduction

4-2. 💡 Minimal Impact: Normal Operation

Mobile Optimization Redirects:

  • Desktop link: https://blog.com/post1.html
  • Mobile link: https://blog.com/post1.html?m=1
  • Result: Improved mobile user experience, no search visibility impact

HTTPS Transition Redirects:

  • HTTP → HTTPS automatic redirects
  • Result: Enhanced security, search ranking improvement factor

 

 

5. Step-by-Step Redirect Error Resolution

5-1. Step 1: Assess Severity

Immediate verification commands:

# 1. Basic status check
curl -I https://yourblog.com/problem-url/

# 2. Redirect chain analysis
curl -L -v https://yourblog.com/problem-url/

# 3. Infinite loop test
curl --max-redirs 3 https://yourblog.com/problem-url/

5-2. Step 2: Plugin Conflict Detection and Resolution

Plugin deactivation testing:

  1. Deactivate all plugins
  2. Recheck redirect status with curl: 
    curl -I https://yourblog.com/problem-url/
  3. Reactivate plugins one by one to identify the problematic plugin

5-3. Step 3: WordPress URL Settings Verification

Direct database check:

SELECT option_name, option_value FROM wp_options 
WHERE option_name IN ('home', 'siteurl');

Force settings in wp-config.php:

define('WP_HOME','https://yourdomain.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','https://yourdomain.com');

5-4. Step 4: .htaccess File Correction

Backup and examine current .htaccess:

# Create backup
cp .htaccess .htaccess.backup

# Examine contents
cat .htaccess

Standard WordPress .htaccess content:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

5-5. Step 5: Redirect Plugin Implementation

Redirection Plugin Setup: Redirection is one of the most popular free WordPress redirect plugins, supporting 301, 302, 303, 304, 307, 308 redirects, 404 log tracking, IP-based redirects, browser-based redirects, and login-status-based redirects.

Post-configuration verification:

# Test redirect after setup
curl -I https://yourblog.com/old-url/
# Check Location header for new URL

 

 

6. Automated Redirect Error Monitoring

6-1. Regular Check Scripts

Simple batch verification script:

#!/bin/bash
urls=(
    "https://yourblog.com/post1/"
    "https://yourblog.com/post2/"
    "https://yourblog.com/post3/"
)

for url in "${urls[@]}"; do
    status=$(curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}" "$url")
    if [ "$status" -eq 301 ] || [ "$status" -eq 302 ]; then
        echo "Redirect detected: $url (Status: $status)"
        # Check final URL
        final_url=$(curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} "$url")
        echo "Final URL: $final_url"
    fi
done

6-2. Regular Google Search Console Checkpoints

Weekly monitoring items:

  1. Pages > Why pages aren’t indexed section
  2. Redirect error trend analysis
  3. Newly discovered redirect errors URLs

6-3. Alert Configuration

Search Console email alerts:

  • Enable “Page indexing issues detected” notifications
  • Subscribe to weekly summary reports

 

 

7. Expected Results and Verification After Resolution

7-1. Immediately Verifiable Results

Post-resolution status check:

# Verify normalized HTTP status codes
curl -I https://yourblog.com/fixed-url/
# Result: HTTP/1.1 200 OK

# Confirm direct access without redirects
curl -w "%{num_redirects}" https://yourblog.com/fixed-url/
# Result: 0 (no redirects)

7-2. Search Performance Improvement (7-14 days)

Validation testing typically takes 2-3 days (February 6-8), followed by gradual improvement:

  • Search visibility recovery: 50-80% recovery within 1-2 weeks
  • Click increase: Proportional to visibility recovery
  • AdSense revenue improvement: More ad exposure opportunities from increased traffic

7-3. Complete Recovery (1 month)

  • Index status normalization: All pages achieve “Valid” status
  • Search ranking recovery: Restore rankings lost due to redirects
  • User experience improvement: Reduced bounce rates, increased page dwell time

 

 

The most important factors are regular monitoring and quick response. Use the curl commands above for periodic checks, and take prompt action when issues are found. Redirect errors aren’t just technical details — they can directly affect your search traffic. Follow the step-by-step solutions in this guide to keep your blog running smoothly. 🙂

 

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