On 26 August 2026, Google confirmed to the trade press what many SEOs had been observing in their log files for weeks. The links in the search results now go via an address following the pattern google.com/goto, behind which lies the actual target URL in encoded form. Anyone wishing to resolve this address will find it almost impossible to avoid making a separate query to Google for each result, and that is precisely where the problem lies. The change does not affect the ranking of your pages, but it does have a significant impact on the way you measure that ranking.
What’s behind the new redirect
Technically, this is a 302 redirect – in other words, a detour between the click and the landing page that is marked as temporary. The link in the search result points to google.com/goto, complete with an encoded parameter; Google resolves this address on the server side and then forwards the click to the actual destination. Google blocks pure HEAD requests – which are otherwise a convenient way of retrieving only the header data of a response – and only a complete GET request reveals the underlying URL. Each individual result must therefore be accessed separately before a tool can even determine which domain is in that position.
Google itself describes this as a protective measure against evolving forms of abuse and points to a long history of technical interventions to protect its own services and users. This primarily refers to providers who carry out scraping on an industrial scale, ranging from commercial SERP interfaces and monitoring services to AI providers who use search results as raw material for their own responses. Initial tests were already underway in July 2026, and since the end of August, the industry has reported a virtually comprehensive rollout across various providers and IP ranges. In Google’s SERPs, the address displayed below the snippet remains visible to searchers; however, when the mouse hovers over the link, the redirect appears in the browser’s status bar.
Why your ranking data is now taking longer to update
Derek Perkins from Nozzle has publicly crunched the numbers and estimates that a single ranking across five results pages generates between 500 and 1,000 additional queries to Google. The reason lies in the mechanics of the redirection, as every single URL needs to be resolved separately, and this applies to organic results just as much as it does to adverts and the numerous additional elements on a modern results page. That’s a huge number when you’re monitoring several thousand keywords daily across different countries, languages and device types. Tool providers absorb this extra workload with additional infrastructure; for you, it’s most noticeable in the update cycles of the reports.
Sistrix has revealed how providers are responding: the Bonn-based tool provider is already resolving the goto URLs and, according to its own statements, is currently scaling up this process. Johannes Beus sums up the situation in a single sentence: “This makes measurement more complex and expensive, but it doesn’t prevent it.” According to his account, updates will be temporarily delayed, whilst data completeness and the comparability of figures will be maintained over time. This is a pattern the industry has experienced first-hand since the removal of the num=100 parameter in September 2025.
Where your data stays clean
Google states that the figures in Google Search Console remain unaffected by the change, as they are derived from Google’s own logging and do not require external link resolution. In many cases, the organic search results themselves continue to display readable destination URLs, as Hanns Kronenberg from Chefkoch has documented using specific search queries. The redirection has a much greater impact on Google elements such as comparison boxes or the Local Pack, where the destination address reliably disappears behind the redirect. Furthermore, implementation varies depending on the browser, device and search function used, which currently makes it difficult to make generalised statements about the extent of the issue.
We remain a reliable source for you:
- Impressions, clicks and average positions in Search Console
- The AI Performance Report for your visibility in AI responses
- Sessions and conversion metrics in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
- Your own domain’s server logs as an independent cross-check
- the address displayed in the snippet, which users continue to see before clicking
Here’s how to update your reporting now
The most important step is to have realistic expectations of your own tools and the people who rely on their figures. If a run now takes twelve hours instead of six, the results remain just as useful in terms of content as before; they’ll simply be available later. When ‘num=100’ was phased out in September 2025, it took Ahrefs around two months to restore full coverage of the top 100 for all users – from enterprise customers in early October to the wider release in mid-November. Make sure to factor in a similar transition period in your SEO budgets and discuss this with your team at an early stage.
Add this to your to-do list:
- Check the update frequency of the tools you use and note this in your reports
- Assess volatility over several weeks rather than individual days
- Set Search Console as the reference source for organic visibility
- Cross-check source attribution in Analytics against server logs on a random basis
- Inform clients and colleagues in advance about delayed data updates
- Check the data status before each assessment, as was the case with the data gaps in autumn 2025
FAQs on google.com/goto
What is google.com/goto?
google.com/goto is a redirect URL through which Google has been routing links in its search results since August 2026. The link in the result contains an encoded destination address, which Google resolves on the server side and then forwards to the actual website. For searchers, the click remains unchanged; for automated analyses by tools and services, however, this creates an additional step per hit.
Will my ranking change as a result of the redirection?
The position of your pages in the search results remains unaffected by this. Google has explicitly described the change as a technical safeguard against abuse; it has nothing to do with content evaluation. What is changing is the speed at which external tools capture these positions and deliver them to you.
Is the data in Google Search Console affected?
According to Google, the reports in Search Console remain unchanged because they come directly from Google’s own systems and do not require the resolution of external links. Impressions, clicks, positions and country data remain available in the usual format. This means Search Console remains the most reliable benchmark for organic visibility.
Why are ranking reports taking longer now?
Every result in the search results requires a separate request to determine the actual destination URL. For a ranking spanning five results pages, this adds up to between 500 and 1,000 additional requests. Tool providers are scaling up their infrastructure accordingly, which is leading to longer update intervals during the transition period.
What should website owners do now?
Check how up-to-date the data in your tools actually is, and note the respective data status in your reports. Assess ranking changes over longer periods and use Search Console as a reference. Also, inform clients and internal contacts at an early stage that reports may be delayed in the coming weeks.
