Every URL change is a chance to lose rankings you've spent years earning. Whether you're running a full site migration or cleaning up a handful of broken URLs, the redirect strategy determines whether your equity survives. Everything you need to get it right is here — free tool, step-by-step guides, and direct support for when the stakes are high.
The same four problems come up on almost every site we audit.
A redirect chain happens when a URL redirects to another URL that also redirects — instead of pointing directly to the final destination. Each additional hop costs you equity and slows the crawl.
→ Read the fixA loop occurs when URL A redirects to URL B, and URL B redirects back to URL A. Googlebot gives up, the page never gets indexed, and users see an error.
→ Read the fixUsing a 302 (temporary) when you mean 301 (permanent) tells Google the old URL is coming back. The link equity doesn't transfer, and the old URL may stay indexed instead of the new one.
→ Read the fixThe most common mistake after a site restructure: the URL changed but no redirect was put in place. The old URL now returns a 404, and any links pointing to it are sending equity nowhere.
→ Read the fixUpload or map your URLs and move from validation to implementation without breaking SEO. Built for technical SEOs, developers, and teams handling migrations, restructures, or large-scale URL changes.
What you get:
| From URL | Status | Hops | Destination |
|---|---|---|---|
| /product/widget-a | 200 | 1 | /products/widget-a |
| /old/category/item | 301 | 3 | /new/items/item |
| /deleted-page | 404 | — | No destination |
| /loop-a | Loop | ∞ | — |
Step-by-step guides for every redirect scenario — from single URL fixes to enterprise migrations.
A step-by-step walkthrough for creating permanent redirects at scale — including the right order of operations, how to avoid common mistakes, and how to validate before you deploy.
How to plan, map, and execute redirect strategy during a full site migration so your organic traffic survives the move.
How to find, prioritise, and resolve 404 errors across a large site — using crawl data, Search Console, and a structured fix workflow.
How enterprise teams structure, audit, and maintain redirect logic across sites with thousands of URLs and frequent content changes.
Every engagement follows the same five-stage process — audit first, deploy last.
We crawl your live site and pull every URL returning a 3xx, 4xx, or unexpected 200. Chains, loops, and missing redirects all surface here.
We build a full old-to-new URL mapping, scored by traffic and link equity so the highest-risk redirects get attention first.
Every redirect in the mapping is tested before deployment — checking the chain resolves correctly, the status code is right, and the final destination matches intent.
We push the validated ruleset directly to WordPress via API, or export a clean .htaccess file ready for server-level implementation.
After deployment we track recrawl progress in Search Console and confirm equity transfer — so you know the rankings are recovering, not just that the redirects are live.
A 301 is a permanent redirect — it tells Google the URL has moved for good, and link equity transfers to the new destination. A 302 is temporary, signalling that the original URL will return. Use a 302 and Google may keep indexing the old URL instead of the new one. If you're not planning to reinstate the old URL, it should be a 301.
Yes. Each hop in a chain introduces additional equity loss — estimated at around 15% per hop — and forces Googlebot to spend more crawl budget to reach the final destination. A chain of three redirects can absorb nearly half the equity that a direct redirect would pass. Clean up chains by pointing every URL directly to its final destination.
One is fine. Two is acceptable in some migration scenarios where consolidation takes time. Three or more is a problem you should fix. Beyond that point, crawl efficiency drops and equity loss compounds. The rule is simple: every URL should resolve in a single hop wherever possible.
For SEO purposes, no. JavaScript redirects depend on the browser rendering the page before the redirect fires — Googlebot may or may not execute it, and even when it does, the signal is treated as weaker than a server-level 301. Use JavaScript redirects only where server-side implementation genuinely isn't possible, and monitor carefully in Search Console.
Googlebot needs to recrawl the original URL before it processes the redirect. For well-linked, frequently crawled pages that can happen within 48–72 hours. For lower-priority URLs it can take weeks. You can accelerate recrawling by submitting the old URLs through Search Console's URL inspection tool or by updating your sitemap to reflect the new URLs.
Start by identifying which 404s matter. Pull a crawl report and cross-reference with Search Console to find which broken URLs are receiving impressions or had inbound links. Those are the ones worth redirecting — the rest can stay as 404s. Work through them in batches, mapping each broken URL to its closest live equivalent, and deploy in bulk using a redirect plugin or .htaccess ruleset.
It can. Six months is generally cited as the point at which Google has consolidated signals to the new URL, but removing the redirect before then risks traffic loss if the old URL is still appearing in search results or receiving inbound links. The safe approach is to leave 301 redirects in place for at least 12 months, and indefinitely for any URL that was indexed or linked to externally.
When you're dealing with hundreds or thousands of URLs across a migration, a single missed redirect can mean months of recovery time. Start with the free tool for a full picture of what's broken, or talk to us if you need direct support on a complex migration.
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