Can a page that's 301 redirected get indexed / show in search results?

[Greentarget]

Hey folks, have searched around and haven't been able to find an answer to this question.

I've got a client who has very different search results when including his middle initial. His bio page on his company's website has the slug /people/john-smith; I'm wondering if we set up a duplicate bio page with his middle initial (e.g. /people/john-b-smith) and then 301 redirect it to the existent bio page, whether the latter page would get indexed by google and show in search results for queries that use the middle initial (e.g. "john b smith").

I've already got the metadata based on the middle initial version but I know the slug is a ranking signal and since it's a direct match to one of his higher volume branded queries I thought it might help to get his bio page ranking more highly.

Would that work or does the 301'd page effectively cease to exist in Google's eyes?

[Colemckeon]

In response to your question, it really depends on how long his current page has been active and how long it has been indexed by google. If there are links pointing to his current bio, it will stay active in the SERPs longer.

Overtime the original page will not show in the SERP's but it will be replaced with the new page with his middle initial.

It is always better to have more information than not. It is just like long tail keywords. If you type his full first middle and last name into search,  he will most likely rank for all three queries as long as his domain has relevant authority.

I hope this helps!

[KevinBudzynski]

If I understand you want to rank for/the middle initial. Just have it in page title, h1 heading and etc.  Would it benefit  to be in url fragment? Yes, but not a huge factor in this case & especially if the kw isn't common .

If you create  a landing page simply to do a 301 redirect to another page, it will eventually be deindexed.