How to Fix Redirect Chains and Loops

A redirect is a forwarding address: someone asks for one page and the server sends them to another. A site needs a few. The trouble starts when they stack up over years of redesigns, and nobody can see them because the browser follows them silently. So the first skill is reading them.

See every hop for yourself

In a terminal, curl -I asks for an address and shows the answer without following it. Here is what our own site returns for its old http address:

curl -I http://getduality.com/
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://getduality.com/

One hop, then the page. That's what you want for every old address. On this site, http to https, www to the bare domain and /index.html to the clean address each take a single step. A free online "redirect checker" shows the same list of hops if you'd rather not use a terminal.

The four things Site Audit looks for

A loop (critical). Page A sends you to B, and B sends you back to A. The browser gives up with "too many redirects", so nobody can open the page, Google included. Loops usually appear when a "force https" or "force www" setting clashes with a redirect someone added by hand. Open your redirect list and look for two rules pointing at each other, or a rule that sends an address to itself, and remove one.

A chain (warning). A goes to B, which goes to C. Each hop adds a delay, and Google stops following after too many (its own documentation says up to ten). Find the last address in the chain and change the first redirect to point straight at it. Keep the in-between redirects too, because other websites may link to those addresses.

A meta refresh (warning). An old method where the page itself waits a moment and then moves on. Google may not treat it as a proper redirect. Replace it with a 301 from your redirect plugin or platform settings, then remove the meta refresh tag from the page.

Links that go through a redirect (notice). Your own page links to an old address, which then forwards. Nothing breaks, but every click takes the long way round. Edit the link to the final address. Start with menus and footers, since one fix there corrects every page.

A chain we found on our own move

Duality used to live on an older domain. When we moved, every old page got a 301 to its new home, so the https addresses forward in one hop:

curl -I https://dualitydigital.co.uk/about/
HTTP/2 301
location: https://getduality.com/features/

The old http addresses are different. The old host first forwards http to https on the same domain, and only then does our redirect send the visitor across. That's a two-hop chain, exactly what this guide tells you to fix. It's easy to miss because each hop looks right on its own. One rule that sends http straight to the final page would collapse it.

Moving a whole domain

If you ever move domains, two things from our move are worth knowing. First, Google's Change of Address tool in Search Console told us "Redirect wasn't found" even though the home page redirect was correct. The old host's cache was still answering for the home page, and once the cache was cleared the request went through. Second, Google's site move guidance says to keep the redirects for at least a year, so don't cancel the old domain or its hosting the month after you move.

Where redirects live

• WordPress: the Redirection plugin, Rank Math, Yoast SEO Premium, or rules in the .htaccess file.
• Shopify: Online Store, then Navigation, then URL Redirects.
• Wix: the URL Redirect Manager in the SEO settings.
• Squarespace: Settings, then Developer Tools, then URL Mappings.
• Your host or CDN: site-wide rules such as http to https often sit in the hosting panel or a service like Cloudflare, which is exactly why they clash with plugin rules.

When a chain or loop makes no sense, check all of those places. Two rules in two different tools are the usual cause.

After the fix

Run curl -I (or the online checker) on the old address again and count the hops: there should be one. In Site Audit, tick the page and choose Verify my fixes to re-check chains, meta refresh and links straight away. A loop involves more than one page, so the next monthly audit confirms that it has gone.