Google routes search clicks through a /goto redirect. Rank tracking gets less reliable

Google has changed the way a click on a search result reaches a website. The click now passes through an address that begins with google.com/goto. Search Engine Land described the change on 25 September 2026. Tests started in July and Google confirmed the redirect in August.

A reader barely notices it. The browser stops at a Google address for a moment and then moves on to the page. Software that reads search results notices a great deal.

Every result link now costs a scraper one extra request

Tools that track positions read the page of results and follow the links on it. With the redirect in place, each link has to be resolved through a Google address before the real one appears. That multiplies the number of requests needed per keyword. Search Engine Land wrote that collecting this data now costs more.

Results below position 20 are the first to vanish from reports

Rank trackers keep the top of the list in decent shape. Deeper results are checked less often and drop out more easily. Search Engine Land wrote that the data grows less trustworthy past positions 10 to 20. Anyone reporting on long-tail terms will see it first. It comes on top of clicks to websites already falling as AI answers take up room in the results.

Google names SerpApi as the kind of tool it wants to block

Search Engine Roundtable wrote that Google presented the redirect as a way to protect its results from tools that copy them at scale, and pointed to SerpApi as an example. Google is already in court with SerpApi over the use of its content. The redirect adds a technical barrier on top of the legal one. It also lands while regulators push the other way, with the UK regulator asking Google to open up its search screen.

What to open in your next monthly SEO report

Pull last month’s rank tracking export and count the keywords in it. Compare that count with the month before. If the number falls while traffic holds steady, the tool has lost sight of those terms rather than the site losing them. Ask your vendor how it now handles /goto links before you approve the next invoice.