Hi everyone,
We have functionality on our site where, if a user clicks a link while logged out, they’re redirected to the authentication page. After logging in, they’re redirected back to the original page using a URL parameter in this format: base-url?redirect-url.
The issue is that I’ve blocked the authentication page from being crawled in robots.txt, and this setup is causing errors in Google Search Console (GSC).
What’s the best way to handle this while avoiding these errors in GSC?
It sounds like Google is trying to crawl the authentication page, which it can’t due to the block in robots.txt. This might be okay, though. Google often flags such pages in GSC because it expects access, but blocking irrelevant pages like login or redirect pages can be good practice if users don’t need to see them.
My advice: Don’t stress too much over this. GSC isn’t meant to be error-free; it’s a tool to understand how Google views your site. If Google is indexing the right pages and ignoring the login page as intended, this ‘error’ could mean your setup is working correctly. Unless these errors are affecting real pages or user experience, you might be able to leave it as is.