Google eliminated outdated structured information documentation, however as an alternative of returning a 404 response, they’ve chosen to redirect the outdated URLs to a changelog that hyperlinks to the outdated URL, thereby inflicting an infinite loop between the 2 pages. Though that’s technically not a smooth 404, it’s an fascinating use of a 301 redirect for a lacking net web page and never how SEOs usually deal with lacking net pages and 404 server responses. Did Google make a mistake?
In case you’re taking a look at it simply from the Changelog, then it does seem like a mistake. There’s one other web page from June 2025 that asserts the discontinuation of help for these pages that additionally hyperlinks to documentation about these structured information that aren’t out of date. However the therapy of the pages shouldn’t be constant. A number of the hyperlinks go to the changelog, whereupon a round loop is triggered and one among them is a 404, which is the anticipated habits.
Google Eliminated Structured Knowledge Documentation
Google quitely printed a changelog word asserting they’d eliminated out of date structured information documentation. An announcement was made three months in the past in June and at present they lastly eliminated the out of date documentation.
The lacking pages are for the next structured information that’s not supported:
- Course data
- Estimated wage
- Studying video
- Particular announcement – 404 Error Response
- Automobile itemizing.
These pages are fully lacking. Gone, and sure by no means coming again. The same old process in that form of scenario is to return a 404 Web page Not Discovered server response. However that’s not what is occurring.
As a substitute of a 404 response Google is returning a 301 redirect again to the changelog for a number of the modified pages. What makes this setup considerably bizarre is that Google is linking again to the lacking net web page from the changelog, which then redirects again to the changelog, creating an infinite loop between the 2 pages. There may be one other web page, the June 2025 announcement, however as soon as the press goes from there to the changelog that’s the place the infinite redirect loop begins.
Screenshot Of Changelog
Within the above screenshot I’ve underlined in purple the hyperlink to the Course Information structured information.
The phrases “course data” are a hyperlink to this URL:
https://builders.google.com/search/docs/look/structured-data/course-info
Which redirects proper again to the changelog right here:
https://builders.google.com/search/updates#september-2025
Which after all comprises the hyperlinks to the 5 URLs that not exist, primarily inflicting an infinite loop.
It’s not consumer expertise and it’s not good for crawlers. So the query is, why did Google do this?
301 redirects are an possibility for pages which are lacking, so Google is technically right to make use of a 301 redirect. Nevertheless, 301 redirects are usually used to level “to a extra correct URL” which usually means a redirect to a alternative web page, one which serves the identical or comparable goal.
Technically they didn’t create a smooth 404. However the best way they dealt with the lacking pages creates a loop that sends crawlers backwards and forwards between a lacking net web page and the changelog. It appears that evidently it might have been a greater consumer and crawler expertise to as an alternative hyperlink to the June 2025 weblog publish that explains why these structured information sorts are not supported relatively than create an infinite loop.
I don’t assume it’s something most SEOs or publishers would do, so why does Google assume it’s a good suggestion?
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Kues
