Redirect chain

Severity: Warning
Impact: Medium
Effort to fix: Low
Issue code: redirect_chain

Why it matters

The redirect target redirects again. Chains slow users down and can stop crawlers before the final URL.

How to fix it

Make the first redirect point straight to the final URL.

Example

http://example.com/shoes redirects to https://example.com/shoes, which redirects to https://www.example.com/shoes, which redirects to https://www.example.com/shoes/. That is three hops where one would do.

How to fix a chain

Find the final URL in the URL details (the chain shows its hop count).
Change the first redirect rule so it points straight to the final URL.
Update internal links, canonical tags and the XML sitemap to use the final URL, so most visitors never hit a redirect at all.

Chains usually build up across migrations: http to https, then non-www to www, then a trailing slash rule. Combining those rules into one redirect fixes every chain at once. A chain that returns to its start is a redirect loop and is critical.

How it affects your score

Finding this issue on any page costs the Technical SEO score 3 points, plus up to 12 more depending on the share of crawled pages affected. Weakens rankings, crawling or measurement. Fix after critical issues.

Find the affected URLs

Open Crawl > Issues and pick Redirect chain. Each affected URL is listed with its evidence, and Copy URLs or Export URLs hands the list to a developer. The issue also appears in the Action Plan, ranked by impact (medium) and effort (low), and in the issues CSV under the code redirect_chain. After fixing, run a new audit and use Compare to confirm the URLs moved to fixed.