Redirects Are Technical Debt. And Most Sites Are Bankrupt.
Every redirect you add stays forever. After a few years, you have hundreds or thousands of redirects. Some form chains. Some loop. Some point to deleted pages.
Nobody audits them. Until something breaks.
What a Redirect Audit Involves
1. Export all redirects. From your server config (htaccess, nginx, Vercel config), CMS redirect plugins, and CDN redirect rules. Get the complete list.
2. Test each one. Does it redirect to a live page? Is it a 301 or 302? Is it part of a chain?
3. Identify problems. Redirect chains (A -> B -> C). Redirect loops (A -> B -> A). Redirects to 404 pages. 302s that should be 301s. Redirects that are no longer needed.
4. Fix them. Flatten chains to single hops. Break loops. Update destinations. Convert 302s to 301s where appropriate. Remove obsolete redirects.
How Often
Quarterly for active sites. Monthly during or after site migrations. At minimum, twice a year.
The Tools
Screaming Frog crawls follow redirects and flag chains/loops. Ahrefs shows external links hitting redirects. Your server logs show how often each redirect is triggered.
The Payoff
Cleaner redirects mean faster page loads, better crawl efficiency, and preserved link equity. It is unglamorous work. But it is the unglamorous work that separates good technical SEO from bad. This is the kind of systems-based thinking that actually moves the needle. Google's crawling documentation covers how redirects affect crawl behavior.
Redirect audits are part of our 113-task SEO framework. Free. No credit card. 30 seconds to set up.
Anyhoo. Go audit your redirects.