🔗 Redirect Chain Checker

Trace every redirect hop. Detect 301/302/307/308 chains, loops, and PageRank loss — instantly.

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Enter any URL to trace its full redirect chain.

Why Redirect Chains Hurt Your SEO

Every redirect hop in a chain adds latency (100–300ms per hop), dilutes PageRank, and wastes crawl budget. Googlebot will follow redirect chains, but it stops at a certain depth — leaving some pages never properly crawled or indexed.

The most common redirect chain scenario: a URL is moved once (A → B), then moved again later (B → C), but the original A → B redirect is never updated. Anyone linking to A now goes through two hops instead of one. The fix is simple — update the redirect from A to point directly to C.

This tool follows every hop in sequence, recording the status code and response time at each step, so you can identify exactly where chains form and what type of redirect is used at each step.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a redirect chain? ▾
A redirect chain is a series of multiple redirects between the initial URL and the final destination. For example: URL A → URL B → URL C. Each hop in the chain adds latency, dilutes PageRank, and can confuse search engines. Google recommends keeping redirect chains to a single hop (A → B directly).
Do redirect chains hurt SEO? ▾
Yes. Redirect chains harm SEO in three ways: (1) PageRank dilution — each redirect hop loses some link equity; (2) Crawl budget waste — Googlebot spends extra crawl budget following each hop; (3) Page speed — each redirect adds 100-300ms latency. The SEO best practice is to update all links to point directly to the final destination URL.
What is the difference between 301 and 302 redirects? ▾
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect — it signals to search engines that the page has permanently moved to the new URL, and link equity (PageRank) passes to the destination. A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect — search engines keep the original URL indexed and do not transfer link equity. Always use 301 for permanent URL changes.
What is a redirect loop? ▾
A redirect loop occurs when URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects back to URL A (or a longer circular chain). Browsers detect this and show an error ('Too many redirects'). Search engines cannot crawl pages with redirect loops, causing them to be deindexed or never indexed. This tool detects redirect loops by identifying when a visited URL appears again in the chain.
How many redirects are too many? ▾
More than one redirect hop is generally considered a chain to fix. Google officially recommends keeping redirects to a single hop. Multiple hops (3+) significantly impact crawl efficiency and page speed. This tool flags chains with 2+ hops as requiring attention.
How does this redirect chain checker work? ▾
This tool uses a server-side proxy to follow each redirect hop in sequence, recording the HTTP status code, final URL, response time, and any redirect loops at each step. It displays the complete chain so you can see exactly where redirects occur and what type of redirect is used at each hop.

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