How chains form#
Chains usually build up over years: a page moves from HTTP to HTTPS, then from /blog/post to /post, then gets merged into another article. Each change adds a hop. A redirect loop is the broken version — A → B → A — and the page never loads.
Why they matter#
- Every hop adds a round trip — noticeably slower on mobile networks.
- Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, but long chains delay crawling and may not be followed in one go.
- More hops mean more chances of a broken link somewhere in the chain.
How to find and fix them#
- Crawl your site (Screaming Frog → Reports → Redirects → Redirect chains).
- Check a single URL with
curl -sIL https://example.com/old/ | grep -i "^location|^http". - Update each rule so every old URL points directly to the final destination.
- Update internal links, menus and sitemaps to use the final URL.
- Combine HTTP→HTTPS and www rules into a single hop at the server or CDN.
Related: 301 redirect, HTTP status codes, WordPress redirects.