A deleted page showed 4,396 impressions over 12 months. By the time I redirected it, Google had already stopped showing it.
A 404 is the error a page shows when it no longer exists. A 301 redirect permanently sends anyone who opens the old address to a new one. Impressions are the number of times a page appeared in Google’s results.
Why it matters
A 12 month total in Search Console adds up every day of the year, so a page that was busy last summer and dead ever since still looks busy. Here all 4,396 impressions came before the page broke, and none came in the 11 months after. The redirect was still worth doing, because anyone following an old link now lands on a real page instead of an error, but it could not win back searches Google had already stopped showing.
I chose the menu page, not the homepage. When many old pages are redirected to the homepage, Google tends to treat them as missing anyway.
How to check your own site
- In Search Console, open Performance, then the Pages tab, and sort by impressions.
- Open the top addresses yourself and note any that return an error.
At a glance
| Status | Done |
|---|---|
| Hypothesis | Redirecting a deleted page that still has search impressions to the closest matching live page will turn those impressions into useful visits. |
| Started | 2026-08-28 |
| Measured by | Search Console clicks and impressions on the menu page, and on the old address |
| Result | Zero impressions on the old address in the 90 days to 4 October 2026, before and after the redirect. |
A 12 month total can hide when the impressions happened. I now check the daily or monthly trend before I call any number current.
- 136 of my published articles told Google they were last updated before they were published15 Oct 2026
- The contact form looked fine and sent every lead nowhereIt worked15 Oct 2026
- My site lost 98 percent of its impressions in two days, a week after I redirected thousands of language addressesToo early to tell14 Oct 2026
- In WordPress, rewrite rules added to the top do not go above each otherIt did not work12 Oct 2026