Redirect Chain

A redirect chain occurs when one URL sends a client to another URL that redirects again before reaching a final response—for example, A → B → C. Each hop requires another response and may add DNS, connection, request, and processing work depending on the hosts and connection reuse. Long or broken chains can delay visitors and crawlers, complicate migrations and analytics, and sometimes end in loops, errors, or an unintended destination.

Why it matters: Trace the full path from important internal links, canonical URLs, sitemap entries, backlinks you control, and common protocol or hostname variants. Confirm every status, `Location` value, final response, destination relevance, and HTTP method where non-GET requests are possible. Update controllable links and rules to point directly to the intended final URL, while preserving necessary legacy redirects for visitors and external links. Use `301` or `308` for a permanent move and `302` or `307` for a genuinely temporary destination; `307` and `308` explicitly preserve the request method and body. Re-test for loops, mixed protocols, query handling, and cross-domain mistakes. A direct redirect reduces avoidable work, but redirects are canonicalization signals rather than a guarantee that a search engine will select the target or preserve a particular ranking.