⭐ Beginner — No coding experience needed
What Redirects Are and How to Fix Chain Problems Easily
Learn what 301 and 302 redirects are, why redirect chains and loops damage your SEO, and how to find and fix them. Step by step for complete beginners.
What you will learn in this guide
- What a 301 redirect is and when to use one
- The difference between 301 and 302 redirects
- What a redirect chain is and why it hurts SEO
- What a redirect loop is and how to spot one
- How to check your redirect chains using the free tool
- How to fix a redirect chain in under 5 minutes
1 What is a redirect?
A redirect tells the browser and Google that a URL has moved. When someone visits the old URL, they are automatically sent to the new one. The most common type is a 301 redirect — which signals a permanent move and passes the old page's ranking authority to the new URL.
| Type | Meaning | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| 301 | Permanent redirect | Page has moved permanently — use for site migrations, URL changes |
| 302 | Temporary redirect | Page is temporarily unavailable — use sparingly, does not pass full authority |
| 307 | Temporary (HTTP/1.1) | Same as 302 — rarely needed for most sites |
2 What is a redirect chain?
A redirect chain is when one URL redirects to a second URL, which then redirects to a third URL. Each hop in the chain loses a small amount of ranking authority and slows down page load time for users and Googlebot.
❌ Redirect chain
/old-page → /temp-page → /new-page✅ Direct redirect
/old-page → /new-pageImportant: A redirect loop is when two or more URLs redirect to each other in a circle. This causes an error for users and Google will not index either page.
3 How to check your redirects
- 1Open the Redirect Chain CheckerGo to audit-tools.html#redirect-checker and enter any URL you want to check.
- 2Review the redirect chainThe tool follows every redirect hop and shows you each step — the URL, the status code, and the final destination. A chain with more than one hop should be fixed.
- 3Fix chains by updating to point directly to the final URLIn your CMS, .htaccess file or NGINX config, update the original redirect to point directly to the final destination, skipping all intermediate hops.