What Creates a Redirect Chain
A redirect chain occurs when a client requesting URL A is redirected to URL B, which then redirects to URL C. This often occurs on legacy domains where old migrations, trailing slash rules, HTTPS upgrades, and subfolder changes accumulate over time.
Why Long Chains Cause Problems
Every redirect hop requires an extra DNS lookup, TCP handshake, and TLS negotiation, compounding page load latency. Search engine spiders will drop off after 4 or 5 hops, refusing to index the final destination page.
Planning the Fix
Audit your routing tables. Instead of daisy-chaining redirects (A -> B -> C), modify the rule for URL A to point directly to the final destination (A -> C) and update URL B to point directly to URL C as well.