Redirect chain
Also known as: redirect hops, 301 chain
A redirect chain sends a visitor through two or more redirects before the final page loads.
Each extra hop is another request before someone reaches the page. A direct redirect gives an old address the same destination with fewer stops.
Check your URL, then look for Reached without a redirect chain in the evidence if that signal appears in your reading.
A redirect chain versus one direct redirect
Here is an example, not a measurement of a live site: an old HTTP address first changes to HTTPS and then moves to a renamed page.
http://example.com/old
Redirects to the HTTPS version.https://example.com/old
Redirects again to the renamed page.https://example.com/new/
The final page loads.
http://example.com/old
↓ One redirecthttps://example.com/new/
The address still changes. The unnecessary stop goes away. Redirect rules should preserve each old page's intended destination rather than send every old URL to the homepage.
How Instant Read checks redirect hops
| Redirects followed | This signal's result |
|---|---|
| 0 | Pass: the requested URL answers directly. |
| 1 | Pass: one redirect reaches the page. |
| 2 or more | Fail: the request followed a redirect chain. |
This signal carries six points inside the Technical Accessibility reading. That is a scoring choice, not a promise about ranking gains or seconds saved.
The free reading shows only the three heaviest passing and three heaviest failing signals. If the redirect check is absent from that list, its absence is not proof that the URL has no redirects.
Check the address your visitors actually use
The final URL can pass with no redirects while an old link to that same page takes several hops. Test the old address too when that is the link people follow.
A normal HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect is useful. A loop or an unreachable destination is a different failure from a successfully completed chain; the checker may return a fetch error instead of a reading.
After a redirect change, open the old link and confirm it reaches the intended page. Then compare the evidence with the current signal registry or compare two URLs without treating their overall scores as a redirect-only test.