By Shad Super in Questions —

How Can You Use Google Search Console to Track the Effectiveness of 301 Redirects and Monitor Any Potential Impacts on Your Search Performance?

Summary

Using Google Search Console to monitor the effectiveness of 301 redirects involves tracking your site's performance metrics, identifying changes in search traffic, and ensuring the redirected pages are correctly indexed. This comprehensive guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to use Google Search Console for this purpose.

Understanding 301 Redirects

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that passes full link equity (ranking power) to the redirected page. It's essential for maintaining search engine rankings during page migrations, restructuring, or during URL changes.

Setting Up Google Search Console

Verify Your Site

Before tracking anything, you need to have your website verified in Google Search Console. Follow the instructions on the Google Search Console Help, 2023 page to verify your website.

Submit a Sitemap

Submitting a sitemap helps Google understand the structure of your site and find all the pages, including those you’ve redirected. Learn how to create and submit a sitemap from Google Search Central, 2023.

Tracking the Effectiveness of 301 Redirects

Monitor Index Coverage

After implementing 301 redirects, check the Index Coverage report to ensure that Google is indexing the correct URLs. Navigate to Index > Coverage and look for:

  • Valid URLs: Ensure that redirected pages are marked as valid.
  • Error: Redirect error: Indicates issues with the redirects.
  • Excluded: Submitted URL blocked by robots.txt: Make sure your redirects are not being blocked by your robots.txt file.

For more details, visit: Index Coverage Report, 2023.

Analyze Search Performance

To understand the impact of redirects on your search performance:

  1. Go to Performance.
  2. Select the date range that covers the time before and after implementing redirects.
  3. Compare metrics such as clicks, impressions, CTR (Click-Through Rate), and average position.

Look for patterns or significant changes in traffic numbers, focusing on the pages you redirected. For deeper insights, refer to Performance Report Overview, 2023.

Inspect URLs

Use the URL Inspection tool to verify that redirects are functioning correctly:

  1. Input the original URL (the one that was redirected).
  2. Check for indexing issues, crawl errors, and see the final URL to which it redirects.

This helps confirm that Googlebot follows the 301 redirect properly. For more information, see URL Inspection Tool, 2023.

Monitoring and Adjusting

Fixing Issues

If you observe any issues or unexpected changes in performance:

  • Review server logs: Check server logs to ensure that the 301 redirects are functioning as expected[SEO Logs, 2023].
  • Update your sitemap: Make sure your sitemap reflects the new URLs[Generate a Sitemap, 2023].
  • Check internal and external links: Ensure that internal links and significant external backlinks are updated to point to the new URLs[Manage New URLs, 2023].

Utilizing Ahrefs and Screaming Frog

To complement Google Search Console data, you can use tools like Ahrefs and Screaming Frog to analyze backlinks and crawl errors:

Conclusion

By leveraging Google Search Console’s comprehensive suite of tools, you can effectively monitor the impact of 301 redirects on your site’s search performance. Regularly inspecting URLs, monitoring index coverage, analyzing search performance, and utilizing external tools will ensure that your redirects maintain your site's SEO health.

References