GSC Pages with redirects report containing 1000 in the URL

[sett]

I am seeing a huge spike in the Google Search Console's "Pages with Redirects" report. Most of the pages contain "/1000" or "//1000" in the URL. All these pages automatically redirect to their main page.

For example, the URL https://www.example.com/blog/my-blog-post/1000 redirects to https://www.example.com/blog/my-blog-post/. However, I am seeing 100+ similar URLs in the report. I checked the reference URLs for these pages and found that only one URL is getting a link from a spam site, while the rest of the pages have no reference URLs.

What should I do?

Thanks

[edited by: not2easy at 11:16 am (utc) on Feb 20, 2025]
[edit reason] readability - example.com [/edit]

[not2easy]

You could check your access logs for any references with that "1000" and determine the server response to have a better idea of whether it is your problem or some external clownery.

[lucy24]

All these pages automatically redirect to their main page.

Well, they shouldn’t, assuming you mean the site redirects all 404s to the front page. It’s a terrible UX--and, if this is what your client cares about, G hates it. It’s a “soft 404” in the classic sense (before they started applying the term to any page they don’t like).

[sett]

Well, they shouldn’t, assuming you mean the site redirects all 404s to the front page. It’s a terrible UX--and, if this is what your client cares about, G hates it. It’s a “soft 404” in the classic sense (before they started applying the term to any page they don’t like).

Should I take them (/1000 URLs and //1000 URLs) to a 404 page? If these URLs start appearing in soft 404 warnings, then I have to ignore those soft 404 warnings. Please suggest.

[lucy24]

You shouldn’t “take them” anywhere. If the request is for a nonexistent page, the server or CMS will return a 404 response of its own volition. All you have to do is make sure your custom 404 page exists, and is where the config/htaccess says it is. (If you are unclear on how this works, ask in the appropriate subforum--Apache or IIS or whatever applies.)

Once G starts getting a 404 response, it will stop calling the URLs “soft 404”. They do not hold you responsible for nonexistent pages that someone else made up.

[sett]

Ok, I will try this.