Google recrawls most sites every 3-7 days, but if your redirects are a mess, it’s wasting that time cycling through pointless hops. You lose ranking power and page speed with every unnecessary redirect.
The real issue is that most people think a redirect is just a redirect. They don’t see the chain building up over years of migrations, rebrands, and CMS changes. Here’s what actually happens: Googlebot follows the path, sure—but each hop eats crawl budget and slows down indexing.
What Is a Redirect Chain Checker?
Redirect Chain Checker is a free browser-based tool that traces every HTTP redirect a URL goes through until it hits a final 200 OK response. It shows you each step—the URLs, status codes, and response times—so you can see exactly where the chain gets messy.
You don’t need to sign up or install anything. Just open the tool, plug in a URL, and hit check. That’s it.
Why It Matters for SEO
Long redirect chains delay how fast Google indexes your pages. Each hop adds latency, and Google may just give up if it hits more than 5 redirects. Most sites don’t know this, but Google’s crawl limit per site is real—and every wasted hop means fewer pages indexed.
You’ll also lose link equity. Every 301 redirect passes about 90% of authority, but that compounds fast: 3 hops means ~73% total value reaches the destination. Four hops? You’re down to ~65%. That’s a real ranking hit.
The worst part? Loops. A redirect that eventually points back to itself will block indexing completely. I’ve found loops on big sites that had gone unnoticed for months.
How to Use It
- Go to https://scrawl.tools/tools/redirect-chain-checker (no login needed)
- Enter any URL—homepage, old blog post, product page, doesn’t matter
- Click “Check Redirects” and wait 10 seconds
The tool runs entirely in your browser. No data is sent to servers. It’s free and always will be.
What the Results Tell You
You’ll see every hop in order, with the URL, status code, response time, and domain. The visual chain diagram highlights when a redirect goes off-site or cycles back.
If there’s a loop, it flags it in red with a clear warning. You’ll also see if a redirect chain includes too many steps—anything over 2 is a problem.
Check the final destination. Is it the right URL? I’ve seen chains that end on a 404 because someone deleted a landing page but didn’t fix the redirect. That’s why you need this tool.
Pay attention to the response times. A slow hop in the chain can drag down your perceived load speed, even if the final page is fast. Combine this with the Core Web Vitals Checker if performance is a concern.
3 Mistakes Most People Make
- Letting old redirects pile up. After a migration, they leave the old rules active instead of updating them to point directly to the final URL. That adds unnecessary hops.
- Assuming all 301s are safe. Most people miss that 302s (temporary redirects) in a chain can confuse Google and delay indexing. You want all permanent moves to use 301s, and only one—no chaining.
- Not checking third-party links. If an external site links to a URL that already redirects, you’ve got no control. But if that URL starts another chain, it’s worse. Use Redirect Chain Checker to audit your backlinks’ paths.
Most audits stop at “the page redirects.” That’s not enough. You need to see the full path, every code, and every delay.
Fixing long chains isn’t optional—it’s maintenance. Treat it like broken links or 404s. Run this check after every site update. Throw it into your routine alongside the Broken Link Checker and Canonical Checker.
This tool catches what crawlers miss. And it’s free. No login. No catch. Just paste, click, see the mess.
Go check your most important pages now: https://scrawl.tools/tools/redirect-chain-checker
