Redirect Chain Checker
Redirect chains waste crawl budget and leak link equity. This checker walks a chain, shows every hop and flags loops, chains that are too long and hops that are not permanent.
How this tool works
A redirect is a promise that a URL still works. Keeping that promise costs a crawl request, and a chain of them costs one per hop. The other cost is link equity, which a redirect passes on but diluted, and a loop costs everything and returns nothing.This checker walks a chain from any URL and shows every hop with its status code and target, until it reaches a 200, exceeds the hop limit, or returns to a URL it has already seen. It flags the three problems worth acting on: a chain longer than one hop, a loop, and a temporary 302 on a move that should be permanent, because a 302 is not cached and the move is re-negotiated on every visit.
When to use it
- Audit redirects after a site migration
- Find a redirect loop that is crawling a site to no effect
- Confirm a domain move is a single 301 rather than a chain
- Check that a temporary redirect is not being used for a permanent move
Frequently asked questions
How many redirects should a chain have?
One. A direct 301 from the old URL to the final URL is best, and every extra hop is a request and a little lost equity.
Why does a 302 hurt?
A temporary redirect is not cached by browsers or crawlers, so every visit repeats the negotiation, and a move that is permanent should be a 301 so it is cached.
What is a redirect loop?
A chain that returns to a URL already visited, so it never terminates. It wastes crawl budget indefinitely and it is a common result of a bad migration.
Do redirects hurt SEO?
They cost crawl budget and dilute equity. A single 301 is a normal part of a migration and is treated as such.
Should I redirect a URL that has no links to it?
It does no harm, but it does no good either. Redirecting URLs that were never linked or cited is pure noise in the log.
How do I find a redirect chain across a whole site?
Crawl the site and follow every internal link, which is what an internal link audit does. This checker works on one chain at a time.