Have you ever experienced an article that has been posted on a blog for months not being indexed on Google because it experienced a redirect error? If so, then we are the same because since November 2022, not a single article that I have posted can be indexed by Google Search Console (GSC). All the article URLs that I checked had the same problem, namely a "redirect error" even though previously everything was running smoothly. Usually two or three days after posting, the article will be indexed by itself without having to bother inspecting or manually submitting the URL in Google Search Console.
Dizzy and confused... of course! In fact, for two days I tried various ways so that the article URL could be successfully indexed by Google, but the results were still zero. In fact, as the number of new articles I posted increased, the number of articles that experienced Redirect Errors increased. I have tried various ways, starting with asking GSC to validate all problematic articles. It turned out that from week to week, this redirect error problem was not resolved, in fact it continued to increase. Hmmm... I have to find a solution to overcome this immediately!
Fortunately, during that period, no clients who have collaborated have complained because the article URL does not appear in the Google search engine. Actually, there was one who complained, but according to the agreement because it was not indexed, the collaboration was canceled. Well... never mind, maybe it was not my destiny and I don't really blame the decision of the client who complained.
But above all, I have to find out how to overcome it as soon as possible, because for me it is very important for the article to be indexed by Google. Moreover, the largest traffic on my blog comes from the Google search engine, and if indexed, the possibility of becoming an everlasting article will be even greater. I feel like this is what blog writers always dream of.
After I investigated, it turned out that the problem of redirection errors was all the same, because it could not be crawled by the Googlebot Smartphone or failed to be crawled so that the article URL could not be detected. But strangely enough, the sitemap that I submitted to GSC did not experience any problems, because the number of articles detected by the sitemap was the same as the number of articles posted on the blogspot dashboard. FYI, I am not an expert in the field of exploring blogs, even for matters of editing templates, I try as much as possible to avoid it. The problem is that if a crash occurs, I don't have enough time to fix it.
As a blogger, my main priority is still taking care of my family and children, even for the past few months I have had to set aside time to go back and forth out of town, to visit my eldest who is now studying out of town. You can imagine, with not much time, I also have to consistently write articles on my blog, because writing on a blog is an important part of my life and also a way to enjoy fun me time. Yep... being a blogger makes me have many friends even though I only do activities at home every day.
How to solve redirect error in Google Search Console?
 |
| Fix Redirect Error |
As usual, I started looking for information or articles related to the redirect error problem experienced by my blog in Google Search Console (GSC). I entered various versions of keywords to get the best information. Incidentally, one of the articles wrote about this problem as a result of changing domains but not redirecting traffic. But I never did that, because my custom domain has never changed since 2022.
Browsing from one article to another actually made me even more confused, until finally I ended up on various Google forums discussing the same problem as I did. It turns out that this blog is not the only one experiencing this problem, there are still many other blogs that are also experiencing the same problem.
Hmmm... maybe in 2022, Google experienced another algorithm change, and this blog was also affected. Here are some ways suggested by various articles and forums to solve this problem, some of which I have done so that articles can be indexed in the Google search engine.
1. Manually Re-index All Articles
This method was suggested by one of the websites I read, and was reinforced by the answer from one of the SEO masters in a forum I read. It doesn't take long, I use this method, which is to request a re-index of all articles that experience redirect errors. If the number of articles is quite large, it's best to give it a break.
It's a good idea to first test the URL before requesting re-indexing by clicking the Test Active URL menu on the top right of Google Search Console. This step aims to find out whether the article has no problems when crawled by Google, or can be indexed by Google. If the results are all green, then click Request Indexing, so that the article is re-indexed.
Have you tried it? Of course, I have tested the URL and requested re-indexing for all articles that are not indexed and have redirection error problems. But after waiting for months, it was still not indexed, not even crawled. This method does not work on my blog, move on to the next tip!
2. Re-submitting the Sitemap
Proceed to the next step, as suggested by one of the blogger forums, which is to re-submit the sitemap and focus on only one sitemap. Initially, I submitted two sitemaps to Google Search Console (GSC), namely sitemap.xml and atom.xml. But from one of the articles I read, it is better to only focus on one sitemap so that the Google crawler bot is not confused ... he said.
Okay, finally I deleted the sitemap, leaving only one sitemap, sitemap.xml. After that, I started resubmitting the sitemap. Although in my case, the number of pages found on the GSC sitemap was the same as the number of article URLs that I published on the blogspot dashboard.
The result? Well... it's the same, even though the sitemap status was successful, not a single article that had a redirect error problem could be indexed by GSC, not even in the crawl... oh my, it makes me dizzy thinking about it, lol!
3. Return the Article to Draft and Change the URL
The next step is worth trying, which is to return the previously published article in draft form. Before republishing it, it's best to edit it a little or fix it if there are still typos. After a few hours, you can republish it. For best results, it is recommended to customize the URL by entering the main keyword in the article.
So that the republished URL does not cause broken links on other people's websites, especially for those who like blogwalking (BW), don't forget to submit a special redirect in the settings menu on the blogspot dashboard. This aims to redirect the URL of the old article that has been published to the newly published URL.
If the article has been republished, proceed to the next step, which is to request re-indexing in GSC, so that the URL of the article that has changed is crawled by Google again. FYI, I have done this method, but it has not shown any results. In fact, the URL of the article that I just republished has not been indexed by Google, not even crawled. Even for weeks, the article still experiences the same problem, namely a redirect error.
4. Changing the Blog Template
This step can be said to be the last option that I have to do to find a solution to the problem of not crawling articles due to redirect errors. Several forums that I read provide solutions to changing blog templates, and some have successfully solved this redirect error problem. When I read that someone had successfully solved this problem, I became interested and decided to change the template.
Even though I bought this blog template for almost seven years on Etsy, in order to solve the problem of articles not being indexed by Google and GSC, I finally decided to change the template in the middle of last month. This step was quite troublesome because I had to re-arrange the widgets and install a new Google Analytics.
Did it work? It turned out not sobs, even though I had changed the blog template, the articles were still not indexed on Google, the notification was still the same, namely a redirect error. Finally I dared to ask on one of the Google forums, and I was advised to change the default template from blogger. But I haven't had time to do this step, because the default template from blogger has very minimalist features so I have to diligently update the html code if I want my blog to look more modern.
5. Add the Code ?m=1
The matter of redirect errors and unindexed articles made me almost frustrated and unable to sleep well thinking about the continuation of this blog. The problem is that I have taken various steps but it still doesn't produce results. Although the traffic from BW activities and shares on social media is quite a lot, but if it is not crawled and indexed by Google, well... it's not quite right!
Never give up... finally I went back to searching the forum on Google that discussed the same problem, although almost all the answers were thrown to the Google help link, which after I read the article made me not understand and even more confused. Finally I found an article that suggested adding the code ?m=1 to each URL when requesting re-indexing in GSC, did you know that the code ?m=1 is an addition when sharing article links via smartphone.
Rather than being curious, finally I tried this method by adding the code ?m=1 at the end of the URL of one of the articles that had not been indexed for two months. The initial information was that the URL was not recognized by Google, then I continued to request re-indexing in GSC. After a few hours, I checked the link to the article that had just been re-submitted. I was surprised, because there was a statement that the URL had been crawled even though it had not been indexed, it seemed like good news!
The next day, I checked the URL again...thankfully it was indexed and all the checkmarks were green. But don't be happy yet, because after checking directly on Google, it turned out that there were no signs of it appearing, aka being fully indexed. Well...never mind, I give up and it's better to just focus on writing, especially since I still have homework to fix Google Analytics (GA 4) that I have installed and it turns out that it is still an error.
While writing an article, I suddenly checked whether the URL of the article that had been checked green in GSC could be indexed directly in Google. It turned out that after two days, the article that had not been indexed for months appeared in the Google search engine, hooray... I was so happy!
Finally, one by one the articles that I had posted and had the redirect error problem, I asked for re-indexing in GSC with the addition of the code ?m=1 of course. But I tried to submit only three articles per day and thank God... all the URLs of the articles that had been re-submitted using the ?m=1 modification could be indexed in less than 24 hours. After one or two days, the URL of the article had appeared in the Google search engine.
Why could a problem like this happen? I don't know, but what is clear is that in 2022, based on the articles I read and from various forums, Google did update its algorithm. According to my understanding, all URLs published by a website will be crawled and indexed by the Googlebot Smartphone. Where Googlebot now prioritizes mobile-friendly blogs, it is possible that my blog is detected as not mobile-friendly even though it is not because before installing the template, I have checked the mobile-friendly display.
Conclusion
According to one forum, most of the blogs that are affected by this problem are those that have hosting on blogspot with more than 500 articles. Well... Understandably, it's free, imagine if you have to pay for hosting with hundreds or even thousands of articles, of course it's expensive.
This is just a guess based on the complaints I read on the Google forum, the exact reason is still difficult to know, only Googlebot knows, what is clear is that every time I post a new article I have to diligently request manual indexing in GSC. Hopefully it can help and be useful!
