Why redirects matter
Every redirect costs an extra round trip, often 100 to 300 milliseconds, and search engines lose link equity on long chains or stop crawling. A typical broken chain looks like this: http://example.com redirects to https://example.com, which redirects to https://www.example.com, which redirects to https://www.example.com/en/. Three hops where one would do.
The status codes
- 301 Moved Permanently: permanent. Search engines transfer ranking to the target. Correct for domain moves and canonicalisation.
- 308 Permanent Redirect: like 301 but keeps the method (POST stays POST).
- 302 Found and 307 Temporary Redirect: temporary. Search engines keep the old URL. Wrong for permanent moves, but often the default of frameworks.
- 303 See Other: after forms, redirects to a GET page.
What the checker detects
- Chains with three or more hops.
- Temporary redirects (302, 307) where permanent ones are intended.
- http:// that does not redirect to https://.
- https:// that redirects back to an unencrypted address.
- Loops and more than five redirects.
The ideal configuration
Exactly one redirect from every variant to the canonical URL: http://example.com, http://www.example.com and https://example.com each redirect directly with 301 to https://www.example.com/. No detour via the http variant of the target domain, no intermediate hop without a trailing slash.
Frequently asked questions
- How many redirects are too many?
- One is ideal, two is acceptable. From three onwards the configuration should be cleaned up. Browsers and search engines give up after five to ten.
- Why does the checker show 302 instead of 301?
- Many frameworks and load balancers use 302 by default. For permanent moves configure 301 or 308 explicitly.
- Does the checker follow JavaScript or meta refresh redirects?
- No, only HTTP redirects via status code and Location header. Those are exactly the ones that count for search engines.