Redirect Chain Checker

A redirect chain is two or more consecutive HTTP redirects between the URL a user/crawler requests and the final destination. A→B→C→D is a 3-hop chain. Each hop adds latency, dilutes PageRank transfer, and increases the chance of one hop failing.

Google's John Mueller has said 'you should aim for 1 redirect, max 2, and absolutely avoid 3+.' In practice, every additional hop costs 50–300ms of TTFB and can lose 5–10% of link equity.

Yes. 301 (permanent) passes ~90-99% of link equity to the destination. 302 (temporary) passes 0% historically, though Google has said 302s are treated like 301s in practice. The bigger issue: leaving a 302 in place indefinitely is a wasted SEO signal — make it 301 if the move is permanent.

Yes — the checker stops at 15 hops but will explicitly flag a detected loop (A→B→A→B) with a 'redirect loop' warning. Loops are usually caused by misconfigured rewrite rules.

The checker only follows HTTP-level redirects (server responses and meta refresh). JavaScript-based redirects (window.location, history.pushState) are invisible to the HTTP fetcher and not detected. To check JS redirects, use a real browser tool.