Why does this matter?
Redirect chains slow down load time (each hop adds 100-300ms) and dilute the passed link value. Google recommends limiting redirect chains to a maximum of 1 hop.
How to fix it?
Analyze your redirects and combine multiple steps into one direct 301 redirect. Update internal links to the final destination. Avoid temporary 302 redirects for permanent moves.
This check scores from 0 to 100. Below 50 is a fail, 50 to 89 is a warning, 90 or above is good. After each crawl you see the score per page in your report, with a short note on what we found.
Frequently asked questions
Detects redirect chains longer than 2 hops.
Redirect chains slow down load time (each hop adds 100-300ms) and dilute the passed link value. Google recommends limiting redirect chains to a maximum of 1 hop.
Analyze your redirects and combine multiple steps into one direct 301 redirect. Update internal links to the final destination. Avoid temporary 302 redirects for permanent moves.
Example
Copy the code below and adapt the domain name, brand name and content to your situation.
# Direct 301 redirect (no chain) - 1 hop
# Nginx
location = /old-page/ {
return 301 https://www.yourdomain.com/new-page/;
}
# Apache .htaccess
Redirect 301 /old-page/ https://www.yourdomain.com/new-page/
# Also update internal links to point directly to the final URL
# Avoid: /a/ → /b/ → /c/ (chain of 3 = slow + PageRank loss)