Redirect chains are one of those hidden SEO issues that many site owners overlook. At first glance, they don’t seem like a big deal– after all, users will still eventually reach the right page. For search engines, however, every extra hop in a redirect chain wastes crawl budget, slows down indexing, and can reduce overall site performance.
What Is a Redirect Chain?
A redirect chain happens when one URL points to another, which then points to the final page. In some cases, the chain can involve multiple redirects before reaching the destination.
Instead of going directly from A to Final Page, search engines must follow multiple steps.
This creates:
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Slower crawling (Googlebot spends extra time on unnecessary steps).
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Lost link equity (authority passed through redirects gets diluted).
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User delays (though small, multiple redirects still add loading time).
Real Example of a Redirect Chain
On one site, we noticed the following chain:
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/products/red-sneakers → redirected to /collections/shoes
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/collections/shoes → redirected again to /products/men-red-sneakers
The original URL had to go through two redirects before reaching the final page.
Now imagine hundreds of pages like this.
Search engines waste resources, and some pages may never get crawled efficiently.
The Fix
Once you have identified the redirect chain:
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Determine the final destination URL (in our case its /products/men-red-sneekers).
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Update the original redirect so that the starting URL points directly to that final target URL.
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Remove any intermediate or unnecessary redirects within the sequence.
The new setup looks like this:
Much cleaner.
Tools to Identify Redirect Chains
Finding redirect chains doesn’t have to be complicated — a few SEO tools make the process fast and clear:
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Screaming Frog – Run a crawl and filter by “Redirection (3xx).” It will highlight any chains and let you export them for review.
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Sitebulb – Provides visual reports showing where chains occur and how long they are.
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Ahrefs / Semrush – Useful for spotting chains in backlinks and live redirects.
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Server Log Analysis – Reviewing raw logs shows how bots are hitting redirects and where they get stuck.
Fixing redirect chains improves crawl efficiency and site performance, but prevention is even better. By keeping redirects direct, up to date, and making regular checks after migrations or major site changes– you avoid unnecessary chains and keep both search engines and users on the fastest path.
