Google: Redirects From Non Relevant Pages Won't Cause The Destination Page To Be Less Relevant

Nov 18, 2022 - 7:41 am 2 by

Chalkboard9 Google 1900px

Dawn Anderson asked Google's John Mueller if redirecting a non-relevant page would cause the destination page (where the redirect it going towards) to be less relevant and cause any ranking issues for its relevant queries. John said no, "I can't think of a way that would have a negative effect there," he added.

The conversation was on Mastodon and here is what Dawn asked:

Is it possible that 301 redirects from less relevant pages (but not irrelevant to the target URL), could actually cause target URLs to be less precise to queries given the folding together process? i.e. less precision since we know there is a folding together thing goes on (it was on an video on deduping by a Googler at a conference)

John Mueller replied:

I can't think of a way that would have a negative effect there. I have seen cases where a URL will also rank for new queries (eg adult sites redirecting to a non-adult page), but that shouldn't negatively affect the other queries that the page ranks for.

The second part of his answer is also interesting, about the short-term ranking of redirected target pages - but I wouldn't get bogged down by that part.

One note, redirects from non-relevant pages could be seen as soft 404s by Google, Glenn Gabe did a case study on it and it jives with the redirect soft 404s we covered here numerous times.

Forum discussion at Mastodon.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 18, 2025

Apr 18, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ruled A Monopoly Again, Heated Volatility, Google ccTLD Change, Ads Safety Report & AI Overviews

Apr 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google

Google Made Search Much Faster - But How Much Faster?

Apr 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

New Google Merchant Center Popular Products Report

Apr 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: No Positive SEO Effect From .esports Domain

Apr 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads PMax Age Exclusions Rolling Out

Apr 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google: Rich Results Manual Actions Can Lead To Removal Of Rich Results & Broader Spam Penalties