How to Fix Redirect Chains

Collapse multi-hop redirects (A→B→C) into a single hop to the final URL.

Medium Medium Impact 15 min

Why It Matters

A redirect chain makes the browser follow several hops before reaching the real page — slowing users, wasting crawl budget, and losing a little link equity at each step. Every redirect should point straight to the final destination.

How to Fix

Map the chains

Crawl your redirects and find any URL that redirects to another redirect.

Point straight to the end

Rewrite each rule so it 301s directly to the final URL in one hop.

Update internal links

Link to the final URL everywhere so the redirect is only a safety net for old external links.

Code Fix

text

Before (broken)

/page   301→  /page/   301→  https://site.com/page/   (3 hops)

After (fixed)

/page   301→  https://site.com/page/   (1 hop to the final URL)

Platform-Specific Instructions

WordPress

Audit your redirection plugin's rules and your host's www/HTTPS redirects so they combine into one hop.

Next.js

Consolidate rules in redirects() so each source maps directly to the final destination.

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