Backlinks point to a redirect

Severity: Opportunity
Impact: Low
Effort to fix: Medium
Issue code: backlinked_redirect

Why it matters

Backlinks reach this page through a redirect. Most value passes, but chains and changes can lose it.

How to fix it

Keep the redirect in place permanently, and ask important linking sites to update the link.

What this means

Other websites link to this URL, according to your imported backlink data, and it redirects to another page. The evidence shows where it goes and how many links point at it, for example Redirects to /new-pricing, 15 backlink(s) from 6 linking domain(s).

This is an opportunity, not an error. A permanent redirect passes the links' value to the target page, so the links still count.

When it is worth acting

The redirect is temporary (302 or 307) but the move is permanent. Change it to a 301 or 308.
It goes through several hops. Point the first URL straight to the final page. See Redirect chain.
The target is not relevant, such as everything redirected to the home page. Point it to the closest matching page.
The links are high value and the linking sites are easy to contact. Asking them to update the URL removes the redirect hop entirely, though it is rarely worth the effort for ordinary links.

What not to do

Do not remove these redirects during a clean-up, even years after a migration. The backlinks still depend on them, and removing one turns this into Broken page with backlinks.

Verify the fix

After changes, recrawl and import the backlink file into the new audit. Redirects that now go straight to a relevant page in one permanent hop can stay as they are. This issue is a reminder of where your link value flows, so it is normal for some URLs to keep showing here.

How it affects your score

Finding this issue on any page costs the Internal Linking score 0.5 points, plus up to 4 more depending on the share of crawled pages affected. A smaller improvement with a modest effect on its own.

Find the affected URLs

Open Crawl > Issues and pick Backlinks point to a redirect. Each affected URL is listed with its evidence, and Copy URLs or Export URLs hands the list to a developer. The issue also appears in the Action Plan, ranked by impact (low) and effort (medium), and in the issues CSV under the code backlinked_redirect. After fixing, run a new audit and use Compare to confirm the URLs moved to fixed.

Guides that cover this issue

Import backlinks from Search Console, Ahrefs or Semrush