The 301 Redirect Chains Checklist: What to Verify Before You Publish

Run through this before you consider 301 redirect chains actually done:

1. Point old URLs directly at the final destination — if A redirects to B which redirects to C, fix A to go straight to C.
2. Use 301 (permanent) for URLs that have moved for good, and 302 (temporary) only for genuinely short-term changes like A/B tests.
3. Audit redirects after every site migration or URL restructuring — this is when chains and loops get introduced, almost always by accident.
4. Check redirects on both www and non-www, and http and https, versions of every URL — inconsistency here silently splits your link equity.
5. Double-check this after any site migration or major redesign, not just at launch.

None of these individually take long. The value is in doing all of them, every time, instead of remembering most of them most of the time.

Pair this with the broken links (404 errors) checklist if you're doing a fuller pre-launch pass.

Redirect Checker runs through most of this automatically.

Everything in this guide runs directly in your browser — no signup, no install.