Geo-IP Redirect (Permanent)

What This Means

The site implements permanent (301) redirects based on the visitor's IP geolocation. Visitors from different countries are redirected to different URL variants of the site — for example, a UK visitor is 301-redirected to the /en-gb/ version of a page.

Why It Matters for SEO

Geo-based 301 redirects can cause cloaking-adjacent issues: Googlebot typically crawls from US-based IP ranges and may always be redirected to the US version of the site, never seeing country-specific content. If your hreflang configuration is not correct, the regional versions may not be indexed correctly for their target countries.

Additionally, permanent redirects based on a variable signal (user location) are conceptually mismatched — the 301 implies the URL has permanently moved, but the destination is not permanent for all users.

What the Platform Checks

The platform detects 301 redirects that target country-specific or locale-specific URLs and cross-references them with the detected user-agent. Fires when permanent geo-based redirects are found.

How to Fix It

• Use hreflang instead: Serve the same URL to all users and use hreflang to tell search engines which version to show in which country.
• If geo-redirects must exist: Use 302 (temporary) rather than 301, and ensure Googlebot (US IP range) is directed to the correct indexable version.
• Never cloak: Do not show Googlebot a different page than users see — this is a manual action risk.
• Test: Use Google Search Console's URL Inspection with different geographic user-agents to see what Googlebot actually experiences.