Question 1

What is a redirect chain, and why is it bad?

Accepted Answer

A chain is a redirect pointing to another redirect: old page → http → www → final URL. Each hop is a full network round-trip before your page even begins to load, and Google's own guidance is to redirect directly to the final destination. One hop is normal; three or more is worth fixing.

Question 2

301 or 302 — which should I use?

Accepted Answer

301 (or 308) means moved permanently: Google transfers the old URL's signals to the new one and updates its index. 302/307 means temporary: Google keeps the old URL indexed and waits for it to come back. If a page has moved for good — a redesign, a domain change — permanent is almost always what you want.

Question 3

Do redirects lose SEO value?

Accepted Answer

A clean permanent redirect passes signals well — Google has said 301s do not bleed PageRank the way they once did. What genuinely loses value is chains, redirect loops, temporary redirects left in place for years, and redirecting everything to the homepage instead of to each page's true replacement.

Question 4

Why should I check www and http versions of my domain?

Accepted Answer

Your site is reachable at up to four addresses: http/https × www/bare. All four should end at one canonical address in a single hop. If www serves the site without redirecting, search engines see duplicate sites and split your authority between them. Trace each variant here and see.

Question 5

Is this free and read-only?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The trace follows the redirects exactly like a browser, reads the headers and stops. Nothing on your site is changed, and nothing is stored.

Where does your URL really go?

Fair questions.

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