Google keeps redirected site in index, but shows Title for site redirected to

[bernard]

This is a new one for me.

I bought and redirected a domain, that was indexed with placeholder pages only.

After a while I was wondering why it hadn't changed in the index to the site I redirected it to.

When I do a site search in Google, the old urls are still there, but the Title and Metadescription is from the site I redirected it to.

What do you make of that?

 

[Ryuzaki]

With redirects, Google will display (visually only) the result they think most closely matches the user's needs based on the search query. That could be the original page or the new destination after the redirect. Either way, the user ends up on your new page.

If you didn't do this too long ago, Google probably is still collecting data to understand which visual results offer the best engagement for their users:

1. URL
2. Meta Title
3. Meta Description

It'll probably shake out over time if we're talking about inner pages with content on them.

For a homepage-to-homepage redirect, you may show the old brand for a long time, if not forever. If someone searches "Brand X" they expect to see Brand X in the results even if it now redirects to Brand A, so if they show Brand X and get a click, that better satisfies the user and educates them on the change that has occurred, versus showing Brand A and having them think the quality of the search results is wonky.

 

[bernard]

It does make sense, because I did search for the brand, so yes, not a bad idea from Google here.

I'm obviously more interested in the SEO benefits, because if Google keeps the old site in index forever, then that imo implies they see the redirect more as a link than a site migration.