Redirect Chain

A redirect chain occurs when a URL redirects to a second URL, which then redirects to a third URL (and potentially more), creating a sequence of multiple hops before the user and crawler reach the final destination. Each additional redirect in the chain adds latency and may dilute the PageRank passed to the final URL.

Redirect chains are detected using Screaming Frog SEO Spider's redirect chain report, Ahrefs Site Audit, and SEMrush Site Audit. The fix involves updating redirects so that all URLs point directly to the final destination, bypassing intermediate redirect hops. Google Search Console's Coverage report may flag redirect chains as crawl issues.