What is an internal redirect?

An internal redirect happens when a link on your site points to a URL that sends the browser to a different URL before reaching the final page. Each redirect adds a round trip.

Redirects themselves are fine when needed (e.g., after a URL change). The problem is internal links that still point to the old URL instead of the new one, creating extra redirect hops.

How many redirects are too many?

Any internal link that redirects is worth fixing. Each redirect adds 50-300ms of delay and wastes search engine crawl budget.

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How to Fix Internal Redirect Chains

technical health Jan 25, 2026 2 min read

What the internal redirect check tests

SiteCurl extracts all internal links from each scanned page and sends a HEAD request to each one (up to 20 per page). If a link returns a 301, 302, 307, or 308 redirect status, it is flagged. The check reports which links redirect, their status code, and the final destination URL.

Why it matters

Every redirect adds a round trip between the browser and server: 50-300ms of delay per hop. For visitors, this means slower navigation. For search engine crawlers, it wastes crawl budget. Instead of spending that budget on new pages, the crawler follows redirect chains through URLs you have already moved.

The fix is simple: update internal links to point to the final URL directly.

How to fix it

Find and update redirecting links

SiteCurl shows you which links redirect and where they end up. Update the href in your HTML, templates, or CMS to point directly to the final URL.

Before: <a href="/old-page"> (redirects to /new-page)

After: <a href="/new-page">

Common causes

HTTP to HTTPS: Links using http:// that redirect to https://. Update all internal links to use https://.
Trailing slash differences: /about redirecting to /about/ or vice versa. Pick one format and use it consistently.
Old URL slugs: Pages that were renamed but internal links were not updated. Search your codebase or CMS for the old URL.
www vs non-www: Links mixing www.example.com and example.com. Use the same domain format everywhere.

Bulk update in a CMS

If you use WordPress, a search-and-replace plugin like Better Search Replace can update old URLs across all posts and pages at once.

How to verify the fix

Run a SiteCurl scan and check the technical health section. The internal redirects finding should show zero redirecting links. You can also test individual links:

curl -sI https://yoursite.com/old-page | head -3

Internal redirects relate to response time and redirect chains (which measures the homepage redirect chain) and broken links (which flags links that fail entirely).

Start a free trial to find all internal redirects on your site.