301 redirect chains

[madegood]

Hi everyone,

I've had my site for a while now and have changed the structure a number of times. I'm confident my 301's work well and am not concerned about dead ends on my site.

My question is, is there a way to find 301 redirect chains? i.e. can I export my link data from webmaster tools and run it through some software that tells me how many steps my 301's are taking to get to the final page?

I don't know for sure that there are long 301 chains in my link structure, but I have a suspicion and it's very hard to check by going through them manually.

Thanks in advance

Will

[TomRayner]

Hi Will

If you're running Chrome, you can use Ayima's Redirect Checker extension while on your pages and it will show you how you got there.

Similarly, this web page illustrates the chain in detail once your enter the URL.

Both require a manual process and only manage one URL at a time, I'm afraid I can't find anything that works in bulk at the moment.

I know to do this in bulk is on Screaming Frog's to-do list.  Might be worth dropping them a line to see if it's in beta yet.

Hope these help.

[madegood]

Thanks Tom,

Yes those tools are very useful, I have used them already. It really was an automated script I was after.

I'll give screaming frog a shout. Their tool is excellent otherwise.

[TomRayner]

Good stuff Will.  The post in question where they mention this can be found here: http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/screaming-frog-seo-spider-update-version-2-10/ - just Ctrl+F "chain" and you should see the reference.

It was mentioned in January so now we're in April it might be imminent.  Here's hoping!

[madegood]

question posted, I'll let you know what they say!

[Houses]

Useful tool I found recently: http://httpstatus.nl/ - showed a few redirect chains on our site

[DRUM.SEO]

A redirect chain and loop report is now available in Screaming Frog http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/audit-redirects/.