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Bing says your page is a redirect. Is that actually a problem?

By the Found Clearly teamJuly 11, 20265 min read

A redirecting URL is not supposed to be indexed as a normal page. Inspect the destination Bing shows you. If that final URL returns 200, allows indexing, uses a self-referencing canonical, and appears in your sitemap, the redirect is probably working correctly.

The wording in Bing Webmaster Tools is more alarming than the situation usually deserves: ‘URL cannot appear on Bing.’ That statement applies to the exact URL in the inspection box. It does not automatically mean the destination, domain, or rest of the website is blocked.

One homepage can have four URLs

To a person, http://example.com, https://example.com, http://www.example.com, and https://www.example.com all look like the same website. To a crawler, they are four URLs. A clean setup chooses one and permanently redirects the other three to it.

If https://www.example.com redirects to https://example.com, Bing is correct not to index the www version. Inspect https://example.com next.

Check the destination, not the signpost

  1. Copy the destination URL shown by Bing.
  2. Inspect that exact destination in the Live URL tab.
  3. Confirm the response is 200 rather than another redirect.
  4. Check that crawling and indexing are allowed.
  5. Confirm the canonical points to the same final URL.
  6. Make sure internal links and the sitemap use the final URL too.

Why the dashboard can look out of date

The inspection card includes the last crawl date. If you deployed a fix afterward, the old result remains until Bing fetches the page again. Bing also notes that its Live URL test does not follow a redirect automatically. You need to inspect the destination as a separate URL.

When to investigate further

  • The final destination creates another redirect or a loop
  • The redirect lands on an unrelated page
  • The sitemap still contains redirecting URLs
  • The final page has noindex or points its canonical elsewhere
  • Bingbot receives a different response from normal visitors

A blocked login page is a different issue

A site scan may complain that an account login is blocked by robots.txt. That is normally fine. Login, account, admin, API, and private report pages are product surfaces, not search landing pages. The useful question is whether the public homepage, service pages, industry pages, and articles remain crawlable.

Primary sources

FAQ

Related questions

Should I remove the www redirect so Bing can index both versions?

No. Keep one preferred hostname and redirect the alternatives to it. Indexing both versions would create duplication rather than extra visibility.

Why is the canonical blank on a redirect response?

A redirect does not return a normal HTML page for Bing to parse. Inspect the destination page for its canonical instead.

Does blocking an account login block the public website?

No. A path-specific robots rule applies only to matching URLs. Blocking /account does not block unrelated public pages when those paths remain allowed.

Found Clearly is a diagnostic and implementation service. Scores are evidence-based estimates, not guarantees. We do not promise Google rankings, AI citations, traffic, calls, leads, or revenue. Results vary by site, market, and competition.