Google: Hreflang Tags With 301 Redirects Are Probably Okay

Apr 7, 2025 - 7:11 am 1 by

Google Line Links

Google's John Mueller said if you have hreflang tags that point to a 301 redirect, it is probably okay. But you probably also want to automate the process of setting up those hreflang tags so that there is no redirect.

Matt Coughlan asked the question on Mastodon:

Back in 2018 you tweeted about hreflang tags needing to point to 200 status pages. Is that still relevant today? After a global migration ours is a bit hit and miss, with many cases where we link to pages which 301 to their new home. Could we consider those broken, or will Google handle it?

Here is what John Mueller from Google responded with on Mastodon:

If they 301 it's probably ok, but ... it sounds like it might be worth figuring out how to automate it so that you don't need to manually track & tweak these. Clean links make tracking with tools easier, and reduce chances of "miscanonicalization" (not a ranking issue, but tracking is challenging)

Yes, some people are still on Mastodon.

Forum discussion at Mastodon.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 14, 2026

Jul 14, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Expands Alcohol, Gambling & Games Policy

Jul 14, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Asks For Justification When Requesting Removal Of Access

Jul 14, 2026 - 7:41 am
ChatGPT

OpenAI Crawlers Can Update Its User Agent String

Jul 14, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center AI Performance Insights For AI Mode & AI Overviews

Jul 14, 2026 - 7:12 am
ChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT Ads Manager Gains Attributed Sales Value & Sales ROAS & Products

Jul 14, 2026 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google Framed Baseball Jersey With Park Bench Signatures