Long redirect chains are a common silent traffic killer. Every extra 301 eats some of the transferred PageRank and adds TTFB, and if a 302 (temporary redirect) is in the chain, the engine may pass no signal at all. The tool walks the chain step by step and prints each HTTP response: status, target URL, and Cache-Control / Location headers.
Why check the chain
- Every redirect is an extra round-trip and a slice of link equity lost.
- Engines cap chain depth: Googlebot typically walks 5–10 hops and stops.
- Redirect loops (A → B → A) make the URL unreachable for indexing.
- Mixed 301 + 302 chains pass equity unpredictably.