Cyclic Redirects Causing SEO Issues

Feb 24, 2011 - 8:39 am 3 by

Traffic CircleThere is an interesting Google Webmaster Help thread of an example of what is called a cyclic redirect. Basically, when you point URL A to URL B and have URL B point back to URL A. It is a cyclic nature and can cause issues for Google and other search engines.

The webmaster came in asking "why is GoogleBot reporting a "Redirect error" on all pages it crawls? promptly saying: not indexed."

The issue was he had both http://www.max.grenkowitz.net/ and http://max.grenkowitz.net/ resolve to the same page. As JohnMu of Google explained:

A) http://www.max.grenkowitz.net/?topic=10 .. contains link rel="canonical" href="http://max.grenkowitz.net/?topic=10"/

B) http://max.grenkowitz.net/?topic=10 ... redirects back to A)

For our systems, this looks like a cyclic redirect, making it hard for us to follow and pick the right URL to actually index.

One way to resolve that could be to use the final URL as the preferred canonical one.

The webmaster fixed it, as far as I can tell from his source code, so Google should pick up on the change soon.

But sending Googlebot in circles might not be a great idea.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Overstock.com's Great Rankings Got Them Penalized In Google